When does the eye of the documentarian obscure the sight? The Peacock film “Black Boys” examines the beauty of Black boys but suffers from a failure to police its own gaze.
Split into four sections — Body, Mind, Voice and Heart — the documentary addresses the dehumanization of Black boys by attempting the reverse: reconstructing them from these parts to show they are worth the care and respect they’re systematically denied in America.
Sports is the film’s entry, though the subject is mostly forgotten after it is broached. We begin with the former pro-football player Greg Scruggs, who returns to his hometown. The film then segues into discussing the trap of professional sports, and the commodification of Black bodies.
The Mind section looks at the topic of education through a Black charter school, Voice reflects on protests, and Heart discusses emotional vulnerability, with the journalist Jemele Hill, the basketball player Carmelo Anthony and others appearing as talking heads.
The director, Sonia Lowman, takes a commendable poetic approach. In one arresting scene, intercut with violent clashes from a football game, a dancer moves through a cotton field.
Lowman, who is white, is aware of her gaze. She appears on-screen as a Black boy tells her about the racist reactions of white women who see him.
And yet Lowman overcorrects. She indulges in metaphors (a boy compares himself to an eagle and we see one soar through the sky) and lingers on the faces of unnamed boys as though they’re objects to stare at, as though one long glance will illustrate a humanity that its audience is blind to. Despite trying so hard to prove the worth of Black boys, the film makes anonymous examples of them. (There are triggering images, too — police brutality, lynchings — used without enough context to make them warranted.)
“Black Boys” does have moments of joy, like when three friends take playful shots at each other during their interview, but these moments work when the film’s gaze is subdued, when it just lets Black boys be boys.
Black Boys
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Peacock.
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'Black Boys' Review: Young Lives in the Balance - The New York Times
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