Hidden Colors
{{Short description|2010s American documentary film series}}
{{about|the documentary filmseries|colors humans cannot see|Impossible color}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Hidden Colors
Part 1:
The Untold History of People of Aboriginal, Moor, and African Descent
Part 2:
The Triumph of Melanin
Part 3:
The Rules of Racism
Part 4:
The Religion of White Supremacy
Part 5:
The Art of Black Warfare
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| director = Tariq Nasheed
| producer = {{unbulleted list|Part 1:|Ola Akinroluyo|Part 2:|Thaddeus Allah|Part 3:|Amos Kulumba|Haneef Muhammad|Darnell Washington}}
| writer =
| screenplay =
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| starring = Please see sections
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| cinematography = {{unbulleted list|Part 1:|Chas Pangburn|Part 2:|Keith Mohmed|Terrance Thompson|Part 3:|Tony “Flex God” Allah II|Janel Jackson|Keith Mohmed|Jojambe Lawrence}}
| editing = {{unbulleted list|Part 1:|Olono Mohammed|Part 2:|Maurice Brawith| Umar Allah |Part 3:|Marquis Crofoot}}
| studio = King Flex Entertainment
| distributor = King Flex Entertainment
| released = {{ubl|Part 1|{{Start date|2011|4|14}}|Part 2|{{Start date|2012|12|6}}|Part 3|{{Start date|2014|6|26}}|Part 4 |{{Start date|2016|5|26}}|Part 5|{{Start date|2019|8|1}}}}
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| country = United States
| language = English
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}}
Hidden Colors is a series of documentary films directed by Tariq Nasheed and released between 2011 and 2019, to explain what Nasheed claims is the marginalizing of people of African descent in America and across the world.{{cite web|last1=staff|title=The Hidden Colors Series — Directed by Tariq Nasheed|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2012/12/05/hidden-colors-2-the-triumph-of-melanin/=%5B%5BAALBC%7Caccessdate=April}}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Critical reception has been mixed to negative, with reviews describing the films' content mainly as discredited conspiracy theories.
Series
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2021}}
The first film in the series, Hidden Colors: The Untold History of People of Aboriginal, Moor, and African Descent, was given a limited theatrical release on April 14, 2011.{{cite news|last1=Abdul-Karim |first1=Shahid |date=January 19, 2014 |title=46 years after MLK's death, Greater New Haven black men say image remains an issue|url=http://www.nhregister.com/social-affairs/20140119/46-years-after-mlks-death-greater-new-haven-black-men-say-image-remains-an-issue|newspaper=New Haven Register|accessdate=February 24, 2014}}
The second in the series, Hidden Colors 2: The Triumph of Melanin, was released the following year on December 6, 2012. The third film in the series, Hidden Colors 3: The Rules of Racism, was released on June 26, 2014. The fourth film in the series, Hidden Colors 4: The Religion of White Supremacy was successfully funded on Kickstarter in March 2015. The fifth film in the series, Hidden Colors 5: The Art of Black Warfare, was released in August 2019.
=''Hidden Colors: The Untold History of People of Aboriginal, Moor, and African Descent''=
The first installment in the series was released on April 14, 2011. The film discusses the role of African and aboriginal people in history and argues some achievements have not been properly recorded or credited to them. Hidden Colors features several interviews with commentators on subjects such as the race and appearance of Jesus Christ and the reasons behind the end of slavery. The film also states Africans were the first to circumnavigate the globe, there was "pre-European settlement in the United States", that Africans created the first Asian dynasties, and that the Vatican created Egyptology.{{cite web|last1=staff|date=February 13, 2014|title=Lehigh's OMA hosts screening of 'Hidden Colors: Part 1' as part of Black History Month celebration|url=http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/thebrownandwhitenews/index.ssf/2014/02/post_23.html|publisher=LeHigh Valley News|accessdate=February 24, 2014}}
==Cast==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
- Tariq Nasheed
- Phil Valentine
- Frances Cress Welsing
- Shahrazad Ali
- Sabir Bey
- Booker T. Coleman
- Umar Johnson
{{div col end}}
=''Hidden Colors 2: The Triumph of Melanin''=
The second installment was released on December 6, 2012 and was also directed by Nasheed.{{cite web|last=Obenson|first=Tambay A.|date=December 14, 2014|title=Tariq Nasheed's 'Hidden Colors 2: The Triumph Of Melanin' Now Available On Home Video|url=http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tariq-nasheeds-hidden-colors-2-the-triumph-of-melanin-now-available-on-home-video|publisher=IndieWire|accessdate=February 24, 2014|archive-date=February 27, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227152308/http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tariq-nasheeds-hidden-colors-2-the-triumph-of-melanin-now-available-on-home-video|url-status=dead}} The documentary further explores issues surrounding people of African and aboriginal descent such as the global African presence and the treatment of Black economic communities in America.{{cite web|date=February 19, 2014|last=Davu|first=Amarii|title=Tariq Nasheed Reveals Our Hidden Colors|url=http://thesource.com/2014/02/19/tariq-nasheed-reveals-our-hidden-colors/|publisher=The Source|accessdate=February 24, 2014}} Other film topics include the investigation of melanin.{{cite web|last1=Staff|title=Hidden Colors 2: The Triumph Of Melanin - DVD|url=http://theafricanhistorynetwork.net/epages/a3d1797c-2da1-4f66-8933-7c6b06c1fe16.sf/en_US/?ObjectPath=/Shops/a3d1797c-2da1-4f66-8933-7c6b06c1fe16/Products/748|publisher=African History Network|accessdate=April 14, 2015|archive-date=April 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150413112426/http://theafricanhistorynetwork.net/epages/a3d1797c-2da1-4f66-8933-7c6b06c1fe16.sf/en_US/?ObjectPath=/Shops/a3d1797c-2da1-4f66-8933-7c6b06c1fe16/Products/748|url-status=dead}}
==Cast==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
- Michelle Alexander
- KRS-One
- Tariq Nasheed
- Runoko Rashidi
- Phil Valentine (Not the talk show host)
- James Small
- Claud Anderson
- Tony Browder
- Booker T. Coleman
- Umar Johnson
{{div col end}}
=''Hidden Colors 3: The Rules of Racism''=
The third installment was released on June 26, 2014. The film focuses on the topic of race, racism, and history within the United States.{{cite news|last1=Dickerson|first1=Jessica|title='Hidden Colors' Documentary Series Takes On 'The Rules Of Racism'|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/16/hidden-colors-the-rules-of-racism_n_5339843.html|accessdate=April 12, 2015|publisher=Huffington Post|date=May 16, 2014}}{{cite web|last1=Staff|title="Hidden Colors" Director Talks New Doc and Race in America 2014|url=http://lifeandtimes.com/hidden-colors-director-talks-new-doc-and-race-in-america-2014|website=Life and Times|date=July 3, 2014|accessdate=April 14, 2015}}
==Cast==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
- Shahrazad Ali
- Carol Anderson
- David Banner
- Dick Gregory
- Paul Mooney
- Khalil Gibran Muhammad
- Nas
- Tariq Nasheed
- Killer Mike
- Phil Valentine
- Frances Cress Welsing
- George Fraser
- Joy Degruy
- Umar Johnson
- Kaba Kamene
{{div col end}}
=''Hidden Colors 4: The Religion of White Supremacy''=
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
- Tariq Nasheed
- Jennifer Tosch
- Tony Browder
- Llaila Afrika
- Boyce Watkins
- Robin Walker
- Phil Valentine
- James Small
- Eric Sheppard
- Patricia Newton
- Nteri Nelson
- Killer Mike
- Kaba Kamene
- Jim Brown
- Delbert Blair
{{div col end}}
=''Hidden Colors 5: The Art of Black Warfare''=
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
- Tariq Nasheed
- Claud Anderson
- Brother Polight
- Kaba Kamene
- Shahrazad Ali
- Ice-T
- Chuck D
- David Banner
- Rizza Islam
- Charm Tims
- Michael Jai White
- Jabari Osaze
- Kmt Shockley
- James Small
{{div col end}}
Reception
The radio program Powertalk hosted by Lorraine Jacques-White called Hidden Colors "eye-opening and necessary."{{cite web|last1=Jacques-White|first1=Lorraine|title=America's Got 'Hidden Colors'|url=http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2011/11/30/americas-got-hidden-colors/|publisher=CBS Atlanta|date=November 30, 2011|accessdate=February 24, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301111049/http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2011/11/30/americas-got-hidden-colors/|archive-date=March 1, 2014|url-status=dead}}
A review of Hidden Colors 2 published in The Village Voice dismissed much of the documentary as conspiracy, saying that Nasheed demonstrates "a seeming total inability to separate gibble-gabble from revealed truth, vital social concern from talk about Chemtrails and digressive subchapters with titles like 'The Hidden Truth About Santa Claus.'" The reviewer praised one contributor, Michelle Alexander, who the Voice noted was the only woman in the film, saying that "Her well-reasoned discussion of the American penal system is compelling, but it's an embarrassment that she should be placed alongside the likes of Phil Valentine, a metaphysician whose malarkey about AIDS ("the so-called immunity system of the homosexual") is a low point, as is Umar Johnson's lionization of the late, unlamented Gaddafi and the odd nostalgia for segregation that runs throughout."{{cite web|last=Pinkerton|first=Nick|date=December 5, 2012|title=Hidden Colors 2: The Triumph of Melanin|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2012/12/05/hidden-colors-2-the-triumph-of-melanin/|work=Village Voice|accessdate=February 24, 2014}}
BET described the series as "one of the most successful Black independent documentaries."{{cite news|last1=Zonyeé|first1=Dominique|title=Inside Tariq Nasheed's Hidden Colors 3|url=https://www.bet.com/article/1w70xj/inside-tariq-nahseed-s-hidden-colors-3|access-date=April 14, 2015|publisher=BET|date=July 1, 2014}}
The Root called the series "semifactual" and influenced by the Hoteps subculture.{{cite web |last1=Harriot |first1=Michael |title=The Hotepocalypse Is Upon Us! Tariq Nasheed Goes Full Sisqo |url=https://www.theroot.com/the-hotepocalypse-is-upon-us-tariq-nasheed-goes-full-s-1823663898 |website=The Root |date=March 10, 2018 |access-date=February 15, 2021}}
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- {{Official website|http://hiddencolorsfilm.com/}}
- {{IMDb title|1857724|Hidden Colors}}
- {{IMDb title|2404572|Hidden Colors 2}}
- {{IMDb title|3528092|Hidden Colors 3}}
- {{IMDb title|5377130|Hidden Colors 4}}
- {{IMDb title|10698666|Hidden Colors 5}}
Category:2010s English-language films
Category:African-American films
Category:American documentary films
Category:Documentary film series
Category:Documentary films about race and ethnicity