Colour Me

What does it mean to be black today? Does it mean you must talk a certain way, look a certain way, act a little tougher, be uneducated, and have a greater chance of not finishing high school? For many black teens these days, that's exactly what it means. But high school dropout turned motivational speaker Anthony McLean is here to prove that doesn't have to be true. Infiltrating Fletcher's Meadow High School in Brampton, Ontario—a school with both a predominantly Black Canadian population and an academic performance rate in the bottom 30 percent—Anthony immerses six students into a mentorship program designed to redefine the meaning of being black. Introducing them to successful, educated black leaders in their community, each student is pushed to discover the damaging effects of living their own lives in a “ghetto mindstate.” As Anthony challenges them to evaluate, and ultimately shed, traditional stereotypes, he himself is forced to examine his own identity as a biracial man in the ambitious and pertinent documentary COLOUR ME. – M.M.