Here’s your chance to see a Netflix documentary directed by a Fort Worth native for free
A celebration of Black excellence and history will be on display at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth this week with a screening of the Netflix film “Black Barbie: A Documentary,” which was directed by a Fort Worth native.
Black Owned Businesses of DFW, or BOB DFW, an organization which promotes Black-owned businesses in the DFW area, will host the event at 3200 Darnell St. on March 5 at 7 p.m.
Brittany Roberts and Marih Gresham, who founded BOB DFW in 2018, wanted to screen “Black Barbie” to show the diversity of Fort Worth. They said it was also a response to book bans and the suppression of Black history in schools, making it even more important to allow Black people to tell their stories and history.
“We’re living in history right now, and I think it’s important to kind of realize that,” Roberts said. “Everything we do now is going to matter in the future, and it’s going to be important now more than ever, to rely on our community and our family.”
AFter the movie, there will be a Q & A with Lagueria Davis, the director of “Black Barbie,” who will attend the screening virtually.
“Black Barbie” follows the story of Davis, a Fort Worth native, on the origin of the Black Barbie doll with the help of her aunt, Beulah Mae Mitchell, who played an influential role in designing the first Black Barbie doll.
In February, the documentary won an NAACP Image Award for Best Documentary (Television).
Kendal Smith Lake, director of communications at the Modern Art Museum, says the museum regularly screens films to educate on different topics and make the “future better and inclusive and just a happier place and a better community.”
Among the films plan to show are “Shaking It Up: The Life & Times of Liz Carpenter” about a Texan, feminist, and journalist who worked at the White House for Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson, at 5 p.m. March 8, and “I’m Still Here,” winner of Best International Film at the 2025 Oscars, about a mother navigating life with her children after the Brazilian dictatorship government abducts her husband, with a number of showings beginning at 3:30 p.m. March 14.
Admission is free and open to the public..
