When Diana Ross became Barbie. The documentary on the first Mattel doll in the “black” version is on Netflix

Coming out on the streaming platform on June 19th. Also in the trailer is producer Shonda Rimes (the same as Bridgerton): "When I was a child, I thought Black Barbie was magical"

RIMINI – Ruby was wearing an elegant and very tight red dress, a typically “Afro” hairstyle, a necklace and large gold earrings. She was Barbie’s friend, although 21 years “younger” because she was born in 1980, inspired by the most famous, and in the flesh, Diana Ross. Her story becomes a Netflix documentary, produced by a former child who, like many, for the first time, seeing her, recognized herself in her, Shonda Rimes. The documentary made by Shondaland is called “Black Barbie” and is expected on the streaming platform from June 19, 2024. For now, a short preview is available in the first trailer, released yesterday on the web.

The film is written and directed by the directorLagueria Davis, granddaughter – no less – of Beulah Mae Mitchell, the first black female employee of Mattel. As the director herself explains, her work, created after ten years of work, was well received at American festivals in the wake of the popularity of the film Barbie, released last year, almost simultaneously, on the big screens.
At the center of the documentary are feminism and racial politics in the fashion doll industry. Yes, because the creation of the first black Barbie, in fact, marked an epochal transition in society and above all among the girls who could finally recognize themselves in her. As told by Shonda Rhimes herself, one of the voice-witnesses of Black Barbie, who in the trailer explains what the impact of the first black Mattel doll was on the world, how it could influence civil rights and the formation of children’s identities. “If you’ve spent your whole life and have never seen anything made in your image, the damage has been done.”, and again “I thought black Barbie was magical”, explains the producer, among others, of < strong>Grey’s Anatomyand Bridgerton. For those who don’t know, Rhimes herself in turn inspired the creation of a Mattel doll in her image, which arrived on store shelves in 2022, thanks to theDream Gap Project. p>

In the trailer of the documentary, the professionals who helped design the first black Barbie, Kitty Black Perkins and Stacey McBride Irby, speak. Beulah Mae Mitchell, a black worker who worked on the Mattel assembly line in the 1960s, also appears. It was she, she explains, who “suggested” the creator of Barbie, Ruth Marianna Handler, to create a black Barbie, when the owner herself asked her employees for advice. Thus Ruby was born. And it was a revolution.

The documentary will beavailable from June 19 on the streaming platform and Netflix describes the documentary in these terms: “More than just a doll. Black Barbie celebrates the significant impact that three black women of Mattel have had on the evolution of the Barbie brand as we know it. Through the stories of these fascinating insiders, the documentary tells the story of how the first black Barbie was born in 1980, examining the importance of representation and how dolls can be crucial for the formation of identity and imagination”.

More than just a doll. Black Barbie, a new documentary from Shondaland, celebrates the impact Black women at Mattel had on the evolution of the Barbie brand. Premiering June 19. pic.twitter.com/sl4fIzohaP

— Netflix (@netflix) June 4, 2024