Lowell Lecture
Screening of Lacey Schwartz's "Little White Lie"
Date & Time
Nov. 29, 2018 at 12:15 p.m. - 2 p.m.
Location
Suffolk University - Modern Theatre
525 Washington Street Boston, MA 02111
Driving Directions
Speaker(s)
Presenting Organization
Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University
Topics
Contact
Susan Spurlock (fordhallforum@suffolk.edu, (617) 994-6899)
Screening of the acclaimed PBS documentary Little White Lie, which tells Lacey Schwartz’s story of growing up in an upper-middle-class Jewish household in Woodstock, NY, with loving parents and a strong sense of her Jewish identity — despite the open questions from those around her about how a white girl could have such dark skin. She believes her family’s explanation that her looks were inherited from her dark-skinned Sicilian grandfather. After her parents abruptly split, her gut starts to tell her something different. At age of 18, she confronts her mother and learns the truth: her biological father was not the man who raised her, but a black man with whom her mother had had an affair. Following the funeral of her biological father, Ms. Schwartz begins a quest to reconcile the hidden pieces of her life.
What defines our identity, our family of origin or the family that raises us? How do we come to terms with the sins and mistakes of our parents? Ms. Schwartz discovers that answering those questions means understanding her parents’ own stories as well as her own. She pieces together her family history and the story of her dual identity using home videos, archival footage, interviews, and episodes from her own life. Little White Lie is a personal documentary about the legacy of family secrets, denial, and the power of telling the truth.