“The look” is a short film that follows a young man of colour, going through his day. Several scenes take his direct perspective, where we see his world through his eyes and witness the discriminatory looks that he gets from people in the street, solely for being a man of colour. It’s a story about a bias as it focuses on one man, one race, that people look down upon based on the stereotypes that surround that man’s race.
The stereotypes that surround his race are mostly to do with violence. People think that, typically black men, are dangerous and shouldn’t be trusted. An example of this is in the diner scene (0:30) when a woman and her partner walk in and are directed to a seat next to the man, while we are watching from his perspective, and they ask to be seated elsewhere while giving the man dirty looks, as thought he [we] may have intentions to start a fight or steal her purse. Another example would be the scene at the start, when the man is taking care of his son, and his son waves at a little girl in the car, light skinned, and her mother realises so she closes the car window so her daughter is unable to interact with the child. This shows that while there is an issue in the adult’s generation regarding race, it could be easily passed down to their children, if adults continue to act like that.
The strong message of this short film is definitely portrayed at the end, when the man walks into the courtroom as a judge, to whom everyone pays the most respect, regardless of his race. The contrast between the way he is being treated outside of the courtroom, to how he is being treated inside the courtroom, when people realise that he has power and money.