Exit
and won them the Princeton Prize
in Race Relations.
Months before the attention and
accolades, the group decided that
they wanted their film to answer a
simple question: Would racism exist if the world were colorblind?
The group made the rounds
through a number of historical
spots and museums, interviewing as many people as they could.
Those conversations reshaped
both their film and their perspective on civil rights.
“After getting the chance to
experience it all, we changed
our minds and decided that we
do need to notice each other’s
color and embrace what they
have to offer,” Garland says. “We
wanted the film to reflect how we
changed our mind so the audience could realize it, too.”
The documentary is part history lesson and part personal reflection. The teens used historical
photos from famous events such as
the Montgomery bus boycott and
wove in interviews with civil rights
activists as well as their own personal reflections from the trip.
“Whether it was some famous
activist or just an everyday person who lived through the movement, their stories moved us,”
GREATEST PERSON
OF THE WEEK
HUFFINGTON
07.01-08.12
Ribant says. “The things they saw
— it’s not the kind of stuff you
read about in textbooks.”
A chance meeting with a co-director for the Jubilee Film Festival
led the students to submit their
film to the festival, and they were
eventually invited to present Colorblind in Selma in the spring of 2011.
“After we found out, we realized
We decided that we
do need to notice each
other’s color and embrace
what they have to offer.
We wanted the film to
reflect how we changed
our mind, so the audience
could realize it too.”
we were the only student film that
was being featured in the whole
festival,” Davidson says. “That
was really exciting, but also really scary. Our movie was up there
with a bunch of other movies that
were made by professionals.”
In the fall, as the girls began
their senior year, they decided to
apply for the Princeton Prize in
Race Relations. They won.
“We were so excited,” Davidson