Early scenes in “The Other Black Girl” place us inside the ever-present anxiety Nella Rogers (Sinclair Daniel) experiences at work. As one of two non-white staffers at Wagner Books, a prominent New York publisher, Nella is accustomed to it.
She senses its shudder behind every interaction with her boss Vera (Bellamy Young). She can barely suppress its irritating buzz whenever her socially clumsy co-worker Sophie (Kate Owens) uses her as a test audience for her shallow journeys in allyship. She pretends it isn’t singing in her ears when she’s surrounded in the elevator or sidelined in meetings. But its constant low-volume screech reminds her and us that she’s always being watched, always one slip-up from being sent packing.
