‘Black Barbie: A Documentary’ Acquired By Netflix & Shondaland Following Work-In-Progress SXSW Debut

Matt Grobar
·2 min read
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Netflix and Shondaland have snapped up worldwide rights to Black Barbie: A Documentary, a new film from Lagueria Davis that screened a previous cut, to critical acclaim, at this year’s SXSW Film Festival.

Pic is exec produced by Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers as part of their overall deal with Netflix, which was extended in 2021, following the Bridgerton duo’s initial signing with the streamer in 2017. It arrives at a time when the doll made world famous by Mattel has taken on a new level of cultural cachet, thanks to Greta Gerwig’s fantasy comedy Barbie, which has grossed over $1.43B worldwide since its July 21st release by Warner Bros, coming in as the highest-grossing film of 2023, as well as the top grosser in the history of the studio, and for a solo female director.

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While resonating with the themes of that film written by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Black Barbie looks at both the company and its product from a different vantage point, celebrating the momentous impact three Black women at Mattel had on the evolution of the Barbie brand as we know it. Through these charismatic insiders’ stories, the documentary tells the story of how the first Black Barbie came to be in 1980, examining the importance of representation and how dolls can be crucial to the formation of identity and imagination.

Producers on the pic included Aaliyah Williams for Just A Rebel and Davis for Lovely Day Films. In addition to Rhimes and Beers for Shondaland, executive producers included Grace Lay and Sumalee Montano for LinLay Productions, Camilla Hall for Lady & Bird Films, Milan Chakraborty, and Jyoti Sarda.

Submarine’s Josh Braun and Matthew Burke repped the filmmakers in the deal.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Davis said that “Telling Black Barbie’s story has been such a personal journey and it warms my heart to celebrate the legacy of my aunt Beulah Mae Mitchell, Kitty Black Perkins, and Stacey McBride Irby in our film. We couldn’t have asked for better collaborators than Shondaland and Netflix to bring this story to the world.”

Producing some of Netflix’s most popular series under its pact with the service, including the Anna Delvey drama Inventing Anna, Regency era romantic fantasy Bridgerton, and the latter’s prequel spin-off Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, Shondaland most recently rounded out the ensemble for its Netflix murder mystery, The Residence. The eight-episode series billed as a “screwball whodunnit” takes inspiration form the Kate Andersen Brower book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, and launched its casting process prior to the start of the strikes.

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