This short documentary film transports viewers to the quiet rural town of Melo, where a man shares his memories of his mother who was, in her time, the last known living Uruguayan person born in slavery. What results is a nuanced meditation on mother-son love, the struggles of a people, and the deep connections between national histories and intimate life.

Long Night’s Journey Into Day reveals a South Africa trying to forge a lasting peace after 40 years of government by the most notorious system of racial segregation since Nazi Germany. The documentary studies South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up by the post-apartheid, democratic government to consider amnesty for perpetrators of crimes committed under apartheid’s reign.

The idea for SKIN DEEP came about in the late 1980′s when Frances Reid, the producer / director, noticed a dramatic increase in the number of racial incidents at colleges and universities across the country. Twenty-five years after the Civil Rights Movement racism and racial tension seemed to be very much alive in this country. Maybe less overt, but very much alive.