updated: 14/02/2006
What’s it like to live in someone else’s skin? FX Networks tried to answer that question in March 2006 with new six-part documentary series Black.White. produced by RJ Cutler and Ice Cube – both of whose credentials offered assurance that this will be the provocative and insightful show they claim.
Black. White. examines race with by putting new faces on an African-American family, the Sparks, and a Caucasian family, the Wurgels: the Wurgels (Bruno, Carmen and their daughter Rose) become black and the Sparks (Brian, Renee and their son Nick) become white.
In their new identities, they got jobs, made friends, went to church and became members of a new community. As their relationships with their new friends developed, complications ensued. In an equally important part of the production, the Sparks and Wurgels shared a home in Tarzana, California for six-weeks, discussing their experiences each day over a communal meal. The overall experience was claimed to challenge their beliefs and core values in ways they could have never imagined.
RJ Cutler said they:
We’re doing something that has never been done before that advances in makeup technology allow. . . [We] spent the better part of a year . . . designing the makeup, which has the unprecedented bar of needing to succeed not only under the scrutiny of the cameras but to succeed under the scrutiny of another human being who would be standing three feet away from you.
Keith VanderLaan was responsible for the makeup transformations. The makeup application for each family member took three to five hours for every day of the six-weeks’ filming. Unlike other in-your-shoes programmes the makeup had to survive not only one-off face-to-face encounters but repeated interaction with new friends and acquaintances. The first images made available by FX Networks (Rose Wurgel top images above) looked pretty convincing but, having now seen stills of all the makeups, I’m less convinced by some of the others.
I was also less than impressed to discover that all three of the Wurgel family are in the business: location scout; actor; TV presenter & wannabe actress. Anyone with a brain questions just how ‘real’ is reality TV: this casting choice just made this show a whole lot less believable.