Comedian and director W. Kamau Bell on the new HBO documentary, 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed

Comedian and director W. Kamau Bell has been a fan of documentaries
as much as a fan of comedy. As a kid, he would sit down with his
mom and watch documentaries on PBS, since there were only a few
broadcast TV channels when he was growing up. He came of age at a
time when lots of documentary filmmakers were putting themselves on
screen and telling personal stories. For Kamau, it's always about
looking at the material and the story you want to tell.  As a
comedian, he's skilled at bringing humor into more serious
subjects. But there is a clear difference between something
personal that happened to him that he can joke about in his standup
act vs. something with more nuance and depth that can be explored
as a longer-form project. 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed is very
personal to Kamau, since his children are mixed race. He wanted to
talk to his three daughters about their identity and experiences,
something they discussed often in their household. He also included
interviews with his wife, mother and mother in law. The production
team cast several other kids in the San Francisco Bay Area,
including friends of his daughters, to expand the focus of the
documentary further. The intention was to keep it lyrical and
light, and temper any intense or heavy topics with humor when
possible. On set, Kamau made sure the kids were as comfortable as
possible and that the cameras were always framed at their level so
they could look him straight in the eye. The set was a rented house
that they intentionally decorated to feel homey and welcoming, and
Kamau made the children feel at ease by showing them the cameras
and equipment first. The parents interviewed in the documentary
found that the project led to them having deeper conversations
about their racial identities with other family members. HBO and
the producers decided to keep the edited time of 1000% Me: Growing
Up Mixed down to just one hour, so that families could sit and
watch it together. Kamau thinks 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed is just
the beginning of what could become a bigger project. He would love
other directors to talk to kids in different parts of the country,
because there's lots of kids out there with different experiences
than those in the very liberal and diverse Bay Area. 1000% Me:
Growing Up Mixed is currently available on HBOMax. Find W. Kamau
Bell: http://www.wkamaubell.com/ Instagram & Twitter:
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