Little White Lie

"Little White Lie reached the highest rating in 10 years for a [PBS] Independent Lens broadcast" 
- Indiewire


"This potent family drama ignites emotional fireworks."
- Los Angeles Times


"provocative simply for what it says about race and identity" 
- The New York Times

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GENRE: Documentary, Family, Race, Jewish Studies

SYNOPSIS:
Little White Lie tells Lacey Schwartz’s story of growing up in a typical upper-middle-class Jewish household in Woodstock, NY, with loving parents and a strong sense of her Jewish identity — despite the open questions from those around her about how a white girl could have such dark skin. She believes her family’s explanation that her looks were inherited from her dark-skinned Sicilian grandfather. But when her parents abruptly split, her gut starts to tell her something different.

At age of 18, she finally confronts her mother and learns the truth: her biological father was not the man who raised her, but a black man named Rodney with whom her mother had had an affair. Afraid of losing her relationship with her parents, Lacey doesn’t openly acknowledge her newly discovered black identity with her white family. When her biological father dies shortly before Lacey’s 30th birthday, the family secret can stay hidden no longer. Following the funeral, Lacey begins a quest to reconcile the hidden pieces of her life and heal her relationship with the only father she ever knew.


Director: Lacey Schwartz
Runtime: 65 minutes
Rating: NR
Language: English
​SRP: $24.95