Black Barbie, a documentary about the history of Mattel’s first Black Barbie doll released two decades after the toy company’s original prototype, has been acquired by Netflix and Shondaland.
The film – directed by Lagueria Davis, the niece of one of Mattel’s three Black employees who advocated for the doll – had its world premiere earlier this year at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
“Telling Black Barbie’s story has been such a personal journey and it warms my heart to celebrate the legacy of my aunt Beulah Mae Mitchell, Kitty Black Perkins and Stacey McBride Irby in our film,” Davis said in a statement announcing the acquisition.
“We couldn’t have asked for better collaborators than Shondaland and Netflix to bring this story to the world.”
Shondaland is a TV production company founded by Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, who’s considered a champion of racial and gender diversity in entertainment.
The movie chronicles the cultural impact of Black Barbie and the journey to its eventual 1980 launch.
Through the stories of Mattel insiders, consumers and cultural historians and commentators, the documentary examines “the importance of representation and how dolls can be crucial to the formation of identity and imagination”, according to an official logline.
In a March interview with The Independent, Davis described her aunt as “the key that unlocks the door which is Black Barbie, which we can walk through and explore the greatest themes of representation and self-determination and intergenerational conversation on progress – through the prism of dolls”.
Lagueria Davis— (Black Barbie)
Davis said she believes that the finished documentary “is layered and nuanced, and there are many impactful tidbits the audience could walk away with”.
“I just hope they enjoy the journey and experience watching the film, and will be inclined to engage in discourse ... that is kind of like a baseline hope.”
Black Barbie comes on the heels of Greta Gerwig’s box office smash Barbie, which ignited a renewed popularity of the childhood doll.
Following the film’s summer release, its box office earnings of more than $1.4bn have gone on to break countless records, including making it the highest-grossing release for a female director in history.
Led by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as the original Barbie and Ken, the fantasy comedy features a racially diverse cast, including America Ferrera, Issa Rae and Simu Liu.
Barbie, which The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey lauded as a “near miraculous achievement” in her five-star review, follows Robbie’s character as she makes her way into the real world to discover her life’s purpose.
