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Arts & Culture

INDEPENDENT LENS: Little White Lie

Young Lacey and her parents (Robert and Peggy).
Courtesy of family (photographer unknown)
Young Lacey and her parents (Robert and Peggy).

Airs Monday, Jan. 18, 2016 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV

This acclaimed Emmy Award-winning anthology series features documentaries and a limited number of fiction films united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement and unflinching visions of their independent producers. INDEPENDENT LENS features unforgettable stories about a unique individual, community or moment in history. The series is supported by interactive companion web sites and national publicity and community engagement campaigns.

Young Lacey and her Mom (Peggy).
Courtesy of family (photographer unknown)
Young Lacey and her Mom (Peggy).
Young Lacey and her Mom (Peggy).
Courtesy of family (photographer unknown)
Young Lacey and her Mom (Peggy).
Lacey and her parents dressed up at the podium at her Bat Mitzvah.
Courtesy of family (photographer unknown)
Lacey and her parents dressed up at the podium at her Bat Mitzvah.
Lacey and her mother sitting on a bench at Foster Park looking tense.
Courtesy of James Adolphus
Lacey and her mother sitting on a bench at Foster Park looking tense.

"Little White Lie" tells filmmaker Lacey Schwartz’s personal story of growing up in a typical upper-middle-class Jewish household in Woodstock, New York, with loving parents and a strong sense of her Jewish identity — despite occasional remarks from those around her about how a white girl could have such dark skin. She believed her family’s explanation that her looks were inherited from her dark-skinned Sicilian grandfather but, when her parents abruptly split, her gut started to tell her something different. A moving look at the legacy of family secrets and the healing power of truth, "Little White Lie" premieres on INDEPENDENT LENS in March 2015 on PBS.

Growing up in a mostly all-white community, Lacey never questioned her identity until, at the more diverse Kingston High School, Lacey suddenly doesn’t quite fit in to any racial profile — and her classmates are vocal about noting it. At the urging of her boyfriend Matt, who is of mixed race, she begins to question her true identity and the validity of her parents’ explanation. At 18, Lacey finally confronts her mother and learns the truth: her biological father was not the man who raised her, but an African American man named Rodney with whom her mother had a long term secret affair.

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"Little White Lie" is the story of Lacey’s quest for answers and the unraveling of a family secret that rocks her sense of identity to the core. As she strives to reconcile her newfound African American heritage with her Jewish upbringing, she discovers that in order to define herself, she must first come to terms with her parents’ choices and how much she is willing to let their past affect her future.

What defines our identity, our family of origin, or the family that raises us? How do we come to terms with the human foibles of our parents? Piecing together her family history and the story of her dual identity using home videos, archival footage, interviews, and episodes from her own life, Lacey discovers that answering those questions means understanding her parents’ own stories as well as her own.

"Little White Lie" is on Facebook, and you can follow @lwlfilm on Twitter.

Past episodes of INDEPENDENT LENS are available for online viewing. INDEPENDENT LENS is on Facebook, Instagram, and you can follow @IndependentLens on Twitter.