In collaboration with Vassar College’s conference “Quiet as It’s Kept: Passing Subjects, Contested Identities” and Professor Mia Mask, we present a short series of films exploring themes around racial fluidity, impersonation, and assimilation.

Scott Carter (Mel Ferrer) is a light-skinned black man living in Chicago. A recent medical school graduate, Scott is eager to marry his fiancée, Marcia (Beatrice Pearson) and start an internship at a Black hospital in Georgia. When he’s turned down for the position due to the hospital’s preference for “southern” applicants, Scott and Marcia reluctantly decide to pass for white in order to avoid discrimination and better their chances of a stable life. But when word of their past comes to light, their entire existence is threatened. Based on real events, Lost Boundaries was awarded Best Screenplay at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival.

35mm collection print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive