| A Day in Black and White | |
| Director: | Desmond Hall |
| Music: | Loris Holland |
| Runtime: | 80 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
A Day in Black and White is a 1999 American comedy film written and directed by Desmond Hall.
A young black writer (Harold Perrineau), asked to write and present a speech on race relations, reaches out to a white friend (Anthony DeSando) for his input. As the two discuss the speech and the racial issues being addressed within it, their differences in views transform a friendly conversation into a heated debate. The pair continue their argument on and off throughout the day, as they discuss a variety of racially-charged topics, from the OJ Simpson trial to disco and interracial dating, with each other and a number of other characters.
A Day in Black and White premiered at the SXSW Film Festival on March 14, 1999.[1] [2] The film was purchased by HBO[3] and scheduled for a February 2001 broadcast premiere.[4]
A Day in Black and White received generally mixed to positive reviews. Jerry Renshaw of The Austin Chronicle wrote in his review that the film "manages to find fresh approaches to a very serious subject", calling it "a rare film that can take such an overheated subject and treat it in a witty, entertaining way, thought-provoking without being inflammatory".[5] Godfrey Cheshire of Variety wrote A Day in Black and White was "(s)incere, insightful and sometimes flat-out hilarious", but stated "the pic suffers only from being a string of clever, topical dialogues rather than a fully fleshed narrative". Elvis Mitchell wrote in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the film "erred a bit on the side of didacticism, not trusting the acuity of the humor to get its points across"", but still referred to the film as "good stuff".[6]
The film was a finalist for the Gordon Parks Award for Desmond Hall's direction in 1999.[7]