Least known movie about passing and possibly one of the best.

........Like most people, who know "Illusions" exists, I know this movie mostly from excerpts and what has been written about it. It may have been on the IFC Network, but, unlike some of Julie Dash's other movies like "Daughters of the Dust", this film is largely inexcusable..........What makes this movie interesting is its treatment of the subject of passing. In movies like both versions of "Imitation of Life", "Pinky" and others light skinned African American decided to pass for white, because they could of course and they were ashamed of what they were. Little attention was given to the characters deeper motivations giving up their racial identity before "Human Stain" (2003).........More important Hollywood has ignored the one part of society where the motivation to pass was the strongest; itself. During the thirties and forties light skinned black actresses like Fredi Washington, Nina Mae McKinney and Lena Horne were forced to put on dark makeup, in order to be less threatening to white audiences, and, when possible, their performances were often cut out of movies distributed in the south. As late as 1956 the motion picture code prohibited interracial love scenes. Little wonder Carrol Channing kept the fact her father was part black secret or Meryl Oberon hid the fact she was part East Indian and even passed her mother off as her maid in order to maintain the deception. Ava Gardner is also said to have been passing. There may have been many real life Mignon Dupree's on both sides of the camera. Still, outside of "Illusions, I can't think of a movie about passing in Hollywood.........It is also significant that this was Lonette McKee's first passing role. She would go on to play Lila Rose Oliver in "The Cotton Club" (1984) and Julia in the nineteen nineties Broadway revival of "Show Boat": both passing light skinned black characters. She herself is proud of biracial background.

TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.