Black Sheep: An Oscar Worthy Documentary

Black Sheep, a short-form documentary created by The Guardian has been recently nominated for an Oscar, and after seeing the documentary for myself, I understand the reasoning behind the nomination. Black Sheep explores the violent racism against immigrants in England, or more specifically, in the small-town regions of England. This is done not by traditional interviews, or narration of a specific timeline, but rather through the eyes of one of the oppressed immigrants, Cornelius.

From the very outset of the documentary, we can see that Cornelius’ story is deeply troubling and personal. This is shown through the one-way interview with Cornelius: The interview lighting is hot, but also dramatic and ominous. Then, the camera is positioned so that we are inside Cornelius’ personal space. This setup used throughout the entirety of the documentary, broken only by reenactments of his story. The reenactments show the gritty reality of Cornelius’ dark descent into crime, violence, and gang life. This darkness is represented in the cinematography: colors become darker and more washed out. There is a sad irony that documentary’ creators are aware of though; Cornelius’ life gets darker as he tries to be “whiter.” Cornelius attempts to adopt the lifestyle of his racist townsmen by imitating dress, mannerisms, and language. He even goes so far as to bleach his own skin to befriend the racists. However, racism was not the only social issue in Black Sheep.

Male social expectations were ultimately Cornelius’ greatest obstacle. He and his father were taught not to show weakness and not to communicate their problems. Their unwillingness to communicate led to physical violence as a method to release their emotions. Cornelius even struggled in the interview with expressing his emotions when he said he was “cool” with his father’s abuse. The documentary’s editor let us see Cornelius struggle to say those words, so we can understand his struggle more intimately.

The documentary raised two relevant social issues, racism and male social expectations in an engaging and personal way through masterful editing and cinematography. That is why Black Sheep is Oscar nominated.