For the third year, Dallas hosted an AFI film festival (www.afidallas.com). So far this year, I have only attended a movie called "Skin." The film set in apartheid-era (and after) South Africa relates the story of Sandra Laing, born of two "White" parents who is "Black" in appearance, when race was all important. Her parents had her legally declared "White" but the society judged by appearance. An engaging film, "Skin" journeys fully into sadness and disappointment with glimmers of joy and hope. It is worth seeing if it gets a US distributor.
I particularly appreciated the Q&A afterword where the actress playing the mother in the story, Alice Krige (a South African, perhaps better known as the Borg Queen of Star Trek), spoke about race relations in current day South Africa. She spoke about hope for the future of the whole nation, if only partially realized in the story of Sandra Laing. The hope was present because of the deep ability of the Africans to forgive the past, to accept the possibility of reconciliation. If that is possible for a nation, maybe we individuals can share it as well.