Karen Bryson’s short film, Monochromatic, tackles the issue of racism through the eyes of a child. Grace (Kenedy McCallam-Martin) is a six-year-old black girl. While playing in her backyard, Grace decides to sneak out and falls, cutting herself along the broken glass-strewn walkway. To her mother’s horror, Grace is returned home by a youth man wearing a Neo-Nazi t-shirt.
From this point, Grace is slowly exposed to the mere existence of racism in London. It starts with observing the city wall spray painted with “White Power” and repeating the phrase without a thought to its meaning, to her mother and aunt secretly discussing their encounters with the militant white locals and the subtle microaggressions from a white lady at her church.
“…Grace is returned home by a youth man wearing a Neo-Nazi t-shirt.”
Monochromatic is set in 1977 London, England, and opens with a passage from white supremacist and skinhead Enoch Powell’s
“Rivers of Blood” speech, calling for the repatriation of immigrants and appealing to racial hatred. Bryson’s short takes us to this time, seen through the eyes of young Grace as the camera places us directly into her shoes and gives us a first-person perspective through Grace’s eyes. This cinematic device is always an interesting choice in movies like Maniac, yet it’s especially effective thanks to cinematographer Tristan Chenais. It never feels like a gimmick and hits all the emotional moments in Karen Bryson’s story.
What Bryson brings across in her story is that moment when a young girl realizes that she is different and treated differently because of her skin color. It’s that moment when childlike innocence is lost due to a serious dose of reality and can no longer be shielded by the truth. Monochromatic tells a powerful and thought-provoking story that will sit with you for a long time.
