Blackness is probed in many of its manifestations as the director travels from the US to Tanzania, and on to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, to find out what it means to be black. A heartfelt quest for identity leads him to conclude that being black and the descendant of slaves makes Catholic Brazil—“a New World culture which embraces its African heritage”—a far more livable country than the Protestant US. But it’s not all a bed of roses there either. The quest continues for a man uncontent in his own skin, trying to find out why being black should weigh so heavily upon him, should always place him at odds with the dominant culture.

Thomas Allen Harris will introduce his film.