Watching the trailer for Rachel Dolezal’s Netflix documentary left us with many questions
The film debuts on April 27.
Rachel Dolezal has found another way to stay in the headlines with her new Netflix documentary. Titled "The Rachel Divide," the film was shot over the course of two years by filmmaker Laura Brownson.
Rachel Dolezal has found another way to stay in the headlines with her new Netflix documentary. Titled The Rachel Divide (See what they did there?), the film was shot over the course of two years as filmmaker Laura Brownson followed Dolezal and her two sons to get a glimpse into the life of such a polarizing figure.
Dolezal became an instant celebrity in 2015 when she was essentially “outed” as white. Working as the director of the Spokane, WA NAACP chapter, Dolezal had been living for years as a Black woman.
The fallout in the media was immediate with numerous cultural critics chastising her for using Blackness at her leisure without living with the real consequences of being a Black woman.
Dolezal has spent these past few years as fodder for comedians and the subject of mostly disastrous media appearances.
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The Trailer
In the trailer for the documentary, Dolezal’s adolescent son is visibly frustrated with his mother. The cameras are on him as he complains about all the unwanted attention that is sure to come from the documentary and her then-soon-to-be-released memoir.
“This book coming out and this documentary might just backfire just like everything else has backfired,” said her son, Franklin. When asked if he resents his mom’s choices, he covers his face with his hands and replies “I resent some of her choices and I resent some of the words she’s spoken in interviews.”
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The next scene of the trailer shows a tearful Dolezal relaying her trepidation about doing the documentary.
“With your film, we’re taking this risk. I’m putting my kids out there, I’m putting Esther out there. It’s hard and I’m trying to be the gatekeeper,” she says in a quivering voice. “And then you’re just like handing it over to someone who can be a wrecking ball,” Dolezal says as she looks away pensively with a slew of skinny blonde braids piled atop her head.
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As far as the claim of being “trans-Black” or “trans-racial,” Dolezal’s son wants his mother to stop talking.
“She can identify whatever she wants to be because it’s her business, but when it’s put in the limelight, I don’t think you should be pissing people off more than they already are unless you want to get bit in the ass from it. She did not choose her words carefully and it affected me and it affected my brother,” the teen says before describing the situation as “draining.”
The Rachel Divide debuts on Netflix on April 27.
