The Rachel Divide

2018

1h 30m

Documentary

List

72%

25 Reviews

Tomatometer

58%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

Rachel Dolezal, the former leader of the NAACP's Spokane branch, becomes a national news story when she is exposed for faking her black ancestry.

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Critics Consensus

Compelling and disturbing in occasionally unintended ways, The Rachel Divide uses one woman's infamy to examine modern American race relations.

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Keyser S

The correct title for this should have been. The Portrait of a Narcissist. I felt so bad the whole show for the kids. This woman could not stop, she had to scream I am a victim. The only victims in this show were the children. This woman just would not stop even though it is destroying the children. A mother is supposed to protect her children not make their life a living hell. If only I had seen this show earlier, I could have let Franklin come live with me. That way he could escape the problems she kept causing. The whole show was her trying to be the victim and just her poor kids trying to survive. For the love of god stop destroying their lives, you narcissist.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

05/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I thought the film added a lot of nuance to the story we all read in the newspapers and saw on TV, which was very one sided and made Rachel look like a huckster. The film was about 10 minutes too long for me, but still highly worth watching. It includes news footage you are likely to have already seen, including anchors questioning the difference between choosing your race and choosing your gender. I think this is a worthwhile comparison. I totally get it that black women deal with a society that is often hostile to them in a way that white women do not. Likewise, people who are born as women or raised as women experience a unique set of societal pressures, expectations, and hinderances that trans women do not experience. To me, being born a woman and living as a woman by choice are two different experiences. That doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with being a trans woman. Quite the opposite, I fully support any human being's right to live as the person they choose to be. I think our society would be a LOT better off if we could go beyond rigid stereotypes and expectations and the fear of change inherent in what Gen Z is creating as our new normal. Change is hard, but it's an essential part of growth. I think Rachel's experience is unique in that I don't know anyone else who has had such a striking set of early childhood experiences as her. I can see how she truly and deeply feels black. She is not flippantly choosing to identify as such to get one over on anyone else. I think we would have a better and more peaceful society if we didn't make such a big deal about this woman's choice to live as the woman she sees herself to be.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

As I right this , this show is more than three years old . I have to say this was truly depressing. Rachel only admitted to the con when she had no other choice . I came away about 90% certain this poor woman has mental health issues. Also , her children seem like unwitting victims that she has no sympathy for.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

lise l

More complex than meets the eye. There is no black and white to this story about Rachel and race. I like that. It makes me think. That is a fine outcome of a documentary. Recommended - if you have an open mind.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I was waiting for the entire movie for the topic (that Rachel kept referring to) that "race is a social construct." It was never discussed in any historical way or at all outside of Rachel saying she wanted this to be part of the conversation. The documentary only showed people opinions around her scandal and could've benefited by listening to the person that was the topic of the documentary and actually bringing this discussion to the table. It really would've made this have a greater emotional depth and substance plus it just felt like an obvious missing piece of the story.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It’s very illuminating to see a society that professes open-mindedness and progression show the same character traits that suppressed so many for so long.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/23/18

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Laura Brownson

Director

Rachel Dolezal

Self

Laura Brownson

Screenwriter

Laura Brownson

Producer

Bridget Stokes

Producer

Khaliah Neal

Producer

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Lucy Hunter Johnston

London Evening Standard

In the end, the film raises more questions than it answers: is this a sympathetic portrait or a hatchet job? Is Dolezal a pioneer or mentally unstable? Would she have the same air time if she were a black woman pretending to be white?

Jun 26, 2018

Full Review

Valerie Complex

The Playlist

There is something sick, twisted and insulting about America's fixation with Rachel Dolezal and the way her lies have given her a platform, albeit a negative one, that most Black people don't have.

May 3, 2018

Full Review

Doreen St. Felix

New Yorker

"The Rachel Divide" becomes a disturbing and enthralling drama of the American family, the pain of its truths and its fictions.

May 1, 2018

Full Review

Laura Finch

WORLD

Brownson's documentary strongly suggests everyone is seeing the same thing in this sad ink blot-except Dolezal herself.

Nov 16, 2018

Full Review

Glenn Dunks

The Film Experience

Nobody is helped by a seemingly throwaway moment that attempts to address Dolezal's supposed transracial identity with that of transgender individuals... perhaps the film's most offensive sequence.

Rated: C-

Jun 20, 2018

Full Review

Dan Webster

Spokesman-Review (Washington)

The Rachel Divide works hard to give an insider's view of a story that for some is the case of a woman suffering from a serious sense of cultural displacement and for others is an ongoing attempt to redefine notions of race and what that term... means.

May 11, 2018

Full Review

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Synopsis

Rachel Dolezal, the former leader of the NAACP's Spokane branch, becomes a national news story when she is exposed for faking her black ancestry.

Director: Laura Brownson
Producer: Roger Ross Williams
Screenwriter: Laura Brownson
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 27, 2018
Runtime: 1h 30m

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