Documentary Synopsis

Part I) Documentary Proposal

My documentary will be mainly based on intimate interviews and personal narrations

using voice-overs. Several different images of interviews and geographical locations,

along with photographs of interviewees and past documentary video clips will serve as

main component for this documentary. I would like to find three to four interracial

couples from different eras of history to exhibit the change in interracial relationships and

the trends it has taken to evolve. Range of couples will be from black and white, brown

to yellow and non-U.S. born couples in hopes of creating a full display of understanding

in interracial barriers and recreating the definition of interracial love.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The most alarming set back in interracial relationships is that racism cannot be simply

erased by ‘love’ nor does intimacy automatically equate to acceptance of your partner’s

differences. Racism is a powerful thought process of the mind, a creation of rigid

paradigm of our understanding and acceptance of those around us. These rigid paradigms

of our mind we carry about race are most blatantly displayed in the settings of interracial

intimacy and in our choice of partners.

In my film, racism will be represented through different lenses of interaction based on

interviews of the following questions (Interviewees will be selected through

randomization based on age, color, gender and geographical location):

1) What is your family like?

Where did you grow up?

What was your childhood like?

2) How do you identify yourself?

How do you view yourself in comparison to other Asian Americans?

3) Have you ever felt racial tension?

Racial tension from friends?

Racial tension from your significant other?

4) Do you agree with how minorities are portrayed in the media?

Do you think media has an impact on the dating scene?

5) Have you ever been stereotyped?

Have you stereotyped others?

6) Is there a particular race you would not date?

Based on these questions and answers from my interviews, I will be able to divide the

film into six components related to interracial dating: 1) family formation 2) racial

competition in the dating scene 3) stereotypes 4) racism, 5) interracial relationships.

*Media representation and its influences were addressed throughout Racial Competition

and Stereotypes*
1) Family Formation

Family formation influences our perspectives on race and race relations. In addition, the

society (make up of family formations) perpetuates these ideas through the media and

stereotypes, affecting our dating scene and dating choices.

2) Racial Competition in the Dating Scene

Racial competition is the main component of my documentary, as it is heavily focused in

the interracial dating scene. An interesting aspect in interracial dating is that the status

and struggle for power is mainly based on race, the notion of racial and gender hierarchy

and its influence in the dating scene. Whiteness or “white characteristic” is often equated

to a certain level of power.

5) Interracial Relationships

I divided interracial relationships into two parts:

I) problems in interracial relationships

II) how (racial) balance is achieved in interracial relationships.

I) Racial tension is not only found within the relationship but outside the relationship,

perpetuated by the society. In several cases, interracial couples are reminded of racial
differences through comments made by outsiders. In interracial marriages, often the

couples’ children are not recognized as a family unit based on their racial makeup.

II) Balance in interracial relationship is achieved based on how people in the relationship

react to these racial tensions. Some couples may “play along” with racial comments to

ease the tension or they may embrace the racial difference of their families.

Interracial intimacy does not necessarily erase racism instead it can be served as a site

for the creation of and perpetuation of racial categories and hierarchies. People who

engage in interracial relationships may be accepting of their partner’s difference, but

they can still hold onto their rigid paradigm (racist views).

Interracial intimacy is a crucial site for the creation of and

perpetuation of racial categories and hierarchies. Intimate

relationships between people of different races reveal our

institutional unease with both color-blindness and color-

consciousness. The solution doesn't depend on a surge in

interracial relationships, but perhaps there is a correlation

between a willingness to seek out a partner from a different

background and involvement in relationships other than

state-sanctioned marriage”

Rachel F. Moran
Another aspect that could be related to my documentary is religion. Perhaps that religion

and spiritual bond could help achieve racial balance and equality in interracial

relationships.

A politically pioneering aspect of the documentary can be the concept behind individual

equality versus collective equality. Based on couples’ need to correct racial tension from

may determine their political stance on racial equality.

QUOTES

“Six-hundred-twenty university students completed an anonymous confidential

questionnaire designed to assess attitudes toward interracial dating. Almost one fourth

(24.2%) reported having dated interracially and almost half (49.6%) expressed an

openness to become involved in an interracial relationship.”

Interracial Dating Attitudes among College Students by David Knox

Almighty God created the races, white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them

on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be

no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not

intend for the races to mix

Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 1967

Racial barriers and tension between America’s ideal of a color-blind society and the

reality of continual race segregation is most evident in the dating scene.

"The choice of a mate is not entirely individual because romantic preferences are highly

contextualized. While love itself may seem like an irrational impulse, the most intimate of

feelings is a product of social forces that transcend the individual. ... For Loving's

promise of marital freedom and racial equality to be realized, Americans must confront

the ways in which race has distorted social boundaries rather than retreat into the easy

and unreflective innocence of romantic individualism" Rachel F. Moran.

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Introduction scene [hypothetically considering that I was able to find my ideal

interviewees, after all it is a proposal paper]:

Scene I: Fast picture slides of different faces; different races using black and white photos

to color images to capture the flow of time in history.

Scene II: Fast images coming to a slow halt as it focus on a black and white image of a

couple [slowly zooming in] introduced with a voice of the characters in the picture.

“When I first met Walter, he was sitting at the colored section and it was forbidden for

him to even look my way but he kept on staring.”

“She was just so damn beautiful, I couldn’t help myself”

Scene III: As the voice trails off, it switches to live interview images of now an old

couple sitting on a Victorian style couch with ivory wallpaper. Holding hands and

looking bit stiff in front the unfamiliar camera.

“Are you still in madly in love?”-My voice

“Yes, we are”

Scene IV: As my question trails off, a new interview with different interracial couple in

their late twenties and early thirties holding a biracial child in the same Victorian style

chair.

“What is the name of you son/daughter’s?”-My voice

“Violet”

*this transition and particular couple is to foreshadow the documentary’s exploration into

biracial childhood and their livelihoods, which can lead to a second edition of the

documentary*

I will introduce to other couples in this mannerism in the introduction segment to

familiarize the viewers. In addition, I will have clips of different couples holding

homemade signs with the title of my film and credits in the beginning. This style of

filming is to deliver an unedited feel and perhaps even my own signature method.

Part II) Viral Ad on Save Our Seas (SOS) Campaign

Scene I EXT: Scene of the dark ocean with glimpses of pink and fading blue in the sky

[approximately 5am]. Then the following view would be of the sunrise hitting the ocean

displaying amazing surf/wave breaks. This initial scene is to notate on the calmness and

clean-ness of the beach untouched by human efforts.

Scene II: The camera follows the ‘sound’ of crashing waves traveling passed the beach,

over freeways into suburbia making its path into a young boy’s bedroom window.
INT: Dark, unlit average sized bedroom with light blue paint and big white French

window with matching decorative blue pillows similar to his overall ambience of the

room. Surfboards stacked up against the walls and posters of pro-surfers riding legendary

waves and bikini clad models.

Scene III INT: The same sunrise of the ocean finally reaches through his French window

and the ‘sound’ of the waves almost tickling to wake him up. A dirty blond boy of

almost seventeen tussles in his bed for a while, but suddenly jolts out of his bed with an

excited grin.

Scene IV INT: Struggling to zip up his black wetsuit in the white tiled bathroom adjacent

to his room, he rushes down stairs still in excitement searching for something. As he

comes across the corner on the bottom of the wooden staircase the boy yells “Mom! Have

you seen my surfboard?!”

Scene V INT: White kitchen tiles with hints of blue, still early on a Sunday morning,

sunrays seeping through big kitchen windows. A slim figured lady in her forties, with

short hair cut resembling the young boy peeks out of the kitchen to the staircase, “Before

you can go anywhere, you have to wash your car first.”

The boy steps into the kitchen “But mom…”

“I told you last week you need to keep your car clean and it’s your responsibility. Wash

the car on the grass please.”

Scene VI EXT: Still in a rush to catch the surf, the young boy grudgingly hurries out

through the backdoor with cleaning gears and a bucket. Still wearing his wet suit he

begins to soap up his black truck on the concrete driveway instead of the grass. As he

sprays his car with water onto the drive quick shots of soap foam flowing down his

driveway into the street gutter.

Scene VII EXT: The sun is out with a clear day (10am) with bright blue sky. The boy

driving in black truck with surfboards tightened onto his truck bed, car windows open

and his hair blown by the wind. Onto his left you can start to see the ocean just off the

cliff with good waves coming in. The boy is grinning and excited to finally arrive for

surf sessions. He parks his car up on the cliff and grabs onto his board, heading down the

trail towards the beach (Jalama Beach).

Scene VIII EXT: As he slowly approaches the [sandy] beach he notices a hazardous sign

on the beach against swimming and surfing due to drainage pollution. There is a huge

sewer drainage flowing into the ocean and you can visibly notice the “foam” floating

directly out onto the ocean. Same soap foam that washed down from his driveway into

the street gutter. What seemed like a clean beach from scene I is now completely

different.

Scene XI EXT: The young boy looks to his left and notices other surfers in

[wetsuits/holding onto their boards] dismay. He looks passed the surfers; up onto the

cliff where his truck and other cars are parked to notice how ‘clean’ all the vehicles look.
Scene X: Save the Ocean campaign logo.