Jul 31, 2010
Chico Colvard is the son of a WWII German-Jewish
mother and African-American father raised in the segregated south
of Georgia. After pursuing a career in the theatre arts, Chico went on to eventually study and teach "race,
law, and media" related courses at the University of Massachusetts,
Boston.
Chico is the producer and director of a deeply
personal and uncompromising documentary, called Family Affair.
Family Affair begins where at 10 years old,
filmmaker, Chico Colvard, accidentally shot his sister in the
leg. This random act detonated a chain reaction that exposed
unspeakable realities that shattered his family. Thirty years
later, Chico bravely visits his relatives and what unfolds is
a personal film that’s as uncompromising, raw, and cathartic as any
in the history of the medium. Family Affair is a story that yields insights about
the legacy of abuse and attempts to understand one’s capacity to
accommodate a parent’s past crimes in order to satisfy an eternal
longing for family.
Family Affair is a feature length documentary
that premiered in competition at Sundance and was the first film
acquired by Oprah Winfrey for her new cable channel, OWN.
Family Affair has screened at premiere
festivals around the world, winning Audience and Best Documentary
Feature awards.