Addressing Racial/Sexual Exploitation

"Mammy", a short film I made this year, is still a major work in progress.
It juxtaposes images of live, active (working, crying, marching) black women against the static (figurines, advertisements) images of the popular Mammy caricature to emphasize the absurdity of this popular and dehumanizing image of the black female body.

The mammy-- dark-skinned, obese, sexually unappealing, sometimes overbearing but forever laughing and smiling, is an image that unfortunately still remains prevalent today via Aunt Jemima bottles and comedies like Norbit, Big Mama's House and Tyler Perry comedies.

Meanwhile black women are facing a major health crisis: 80% of black women are reported as being overweight, 50% are obese. Diabetes, heart disease and other obesity-related illnesses are ravaging the black community.
Black women have the highest rates of clinical depression in the country. Black women, assaulted with European standards of beauty that are far from our own natural features, still use harsh and dangerous chemicals on their skin and hair to assimilate to these standards.

As I continue to edit and add pieces to this film I ask myself the following questions:
What am I attempting to change with this film? Who is my audience? What kind of major impact can I have on individual viewers?