Hue: A Matter of Colour

Hue: A Matter of Colour is a 2013 feature-length documentary film by the National Film Board of Canada, in the frame of a family holiday in Rio de Janeiro, with his blonde wife and teenage daughters, when Indian-born director Vic Sarin investigates color prejudice in Asian, African and American contexts. Moving testimony is presented by the Jamaican mother of author Malcolm Gladwell, a Filipino businesswoman specializing in whitening dark skin, the South African mother of children of various skin colours, and albino children in Tanzania threatened by murder in their home communities. Before settling in Canada Sarin was born in India and grew up in Australia, where the White Australia policy did not permit him to remain. He finds that in many different countries "marrying light" is preferred for upward social mobility, confirmed by young Indian woman whose arranged marriage was cancelled when the bridegroom's mother vetoed her as too dark-skinned.