‘The Rachel Divide’ Film Review: Rachel Dolezal Doc Is Non-Illuminating Clickbait
Tribeca 2018: This isn’t a movie about race; it’s about a documentarian trying to get famous on the back of a woman who craves negative attention
Dan Callahan | April 24, 2018 @ 8:11 AM
Last Updated: April 24, 2018 @ 11:31 AM
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Documentary filmmaker Laura Brownson has chosen to make a film about Rachel Dolezal, the former president of an NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington, who was outed as white and formerly blonde-haired by a news reporter in 2015. The vague title that Brownson has chosen is “The Rachel Divide,” which would suggest that there might be something to debate in Dolezal’s story. This most certainly is not the case.
Dolezal wears her hair in elaborate dreadlocks most of the time in this film (which premieres April 27 on Netflix) and sometimes sports a curly wig. Her hairdos are so over-the-top that they look like they were meant to attract attention, and attention is clearly something that Dolezal craves, whatever she might say to the contrary. She refuses to give up her hairdos, which have become her trademark. What we are dealing with here seems to be a pathology where Dolezal is seeking negative attention and abuse. If she doesn’t get that negative attention or abuse, Dolezal is not above fabricating it.
“Who’s the gatekeeper for blackness?” Dolezal asks at one point, in her thin, nagging, disembodied voice. We see her raising her two teenaged male sons, who have to deal with the trouble she brings wherever they go. And when the expected sob story of her past finally emerges, it proves to be just as thin as her speaking voice.
Dolezal was raised by white parents who were very religious and who favored her older brother. Dolezal’s parents adopted four other children, all of whom were African-American, and they lived in a very white area of Montana. Dolezal’s adopted sister Esther is the only family member we see much of in the film. (Her parents are only seen via interviews from television news sources.) Esther shows us scars from beatings she claims to have gotten from her adoptive parents, and she says that she was sexually abused by Dolezal’s older brother. Esther brought a court case against this brother that Dolezal herself was participating in, but this fell apart after Dolezal was exposed in 2015.
If Brownson was so set upon making a film about Dolezal, surely she should have pressed more into this family history and pressed Dolezal herself about it. We do see Dolezal attacked and pressed throughout this movie, but by journalists, college students, and former colleagues at the NAACP, and their verbal attacks are increasingly scathing and un-answerable.
Dolezal desperately tries to align herself with absurd terms like “trans racial” in order to try to find some way of making her way of life acceptable, but she always comes up short, and it is impossible to have any sympathy for her because she is so transparently a manipulator and a guilt-tripper. Dolezal gives herself away particularly here in the moment when she says that the negative response she got in the wake of her public outing made her think of her abusive parents.
It seems clear that Dolezal is seeking condemnation, and that she likely wanted to be exposed because only that would give her the twisted form of attention she is seeking. But all of this is a subject only for a psychologist, and it’s not even a particularly interesting subject. Dolezal’s story has nothing to do with race or racial perceptions beyond the racial performance element in her self-presentation that calls up all kinds of ugly memories of white entertainers performing in blackface.
The mark of a successful documentary, and a worthy subject for a documentary, is how much it can make us think about and consider various issues and various complications. There is nothing complicated about Rachel Dolezal’s story. It turns out to be small and far too specific to have any bearing on anything beyond the sickness of one highly unpleasant and repellent individual.
So why did Brownson choose to extend Dolezal’s 15 minutes of fame with this movie rather than celebrate or tell the story of an actual living African-American woman? The answer is that Dolezal is basically outrage clickbait in human form, and so Brownson is using Dolezal’s negative attention seeking to get attention for herself as a filmmaker. Nothing beyond that has been accomplished here.
Brownson winds things up with a montage of photos from Dolezal’s youth where we can see that as a teenager she dressed up several times in Asian garb, and so she seems to have had an Asian period as well. Whatever other racial identities Dolezal decides to try out in the future will hopefully be performed in obscurity.
'Making a Murderer' Part 2: 37 Updates Since the Series' Debut (Photos)
After nearly three years, "Making a Murderer Part 2" is here. Before you dive back into Netflix's true-crime phenomenon, here's a look back at how the original docuseries changed the lives of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey, who were convicted for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.
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Making a Murderer Premieres
The documentary was released on Netflix Dec. 18, 2015. It has since received an approval rating of 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Ken Kratz Bashed on Yelp
A week after "Making a Murderer" premiered, fans took to Yelp to warn potential new clients against hiring Steven Avery's prosecutor.
A White House Petition circulated shortly after the series' release, seeking pardons of both Avery and Dassey. It required 100,000 signatures before Jan. 19 to reach eligibility for an official White House review.
Although the White House Petition to pardon Avery reached the requisite number of signatures, President Barack Obama was constitutionally barred from taking action, because Avery was convicted in state court.
In January of 2016, people protested outside the Manitowoc County Courthouse where Avery and Dassey were convicted.
Supporters traveled from as far as Texas, Florida and Oregon. The event was live-streamed on Periscope, drawing hundreds of people online, many from outside the U.S.
Also in January 2016, Avery and Dassey launched a fundraising website through their family in an attempt to raise money to mount another defense effort.
Avery's Ex-Fiancee Calls Him a "Monster,' 'Not Innocent'
Avery's ex-fiancée Jodi Stachowski said he is a “monster” and that “he’s not innocent” in the murder of Halbach in a January 2016 interview with HLN’s Nancy Grace.
Stachowski said she once “ate two boxes of rat poison just so I could go to the hospital to get away from him and ask them to get the police to help me.”
Bomb Threat at Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department
On Feb. 3, 2016, a bomb threat was called into the Sheriff's Department. Authorities say that the caller claimed “there were bombs in the building” and that he was “getting justice” for Steven Avery.
In February 2016, TheWrap obtained transcripts from a May 13, 2006 interview, in which Dassey told police that Avery sometimes tried to grab his penis “through the pants.” In a phone call later that day to his mother, Barb Tadych, Dassey said he told police that Avery “would grab me somewhere where I was uncomfortable.”
Steven Avery Jr. Doesn't Know If His Father Is Guilty
Avery’s son had “no idea” whether his father is guilty of the murder of Teresa Halbach, for which he’s currently serving life in prison.
“I have no idea,” Steven Avery Jr. told Crime Watch Daily in an interview. “I mean … only one person can answer that and that is Teresa. But she can’t answer it no more.”
Ken Kratz, Michael Griesbach Publish Tell-All Books
Avery prosecutor Ken Kratz and Michael Griesbach, the assistant district attorney responsible for helping Avery get out of jail in his first case, both wrote tell-all books chronicling the case and its representation in "Making a Murderer."
Kathleen Zellner Says There Are "a Couple" New Suspects
In an in-depth profile published in March 2016 by Newsweek, Zellner said that she has found “a couple” of suspects, both of whom are men who knew Halbach.
“We have a couple,” Zellner, who specializes in wrongful convictions, said. “I’d say there’s one, leading the pack by a lot. But I don’t want to scare him off, I don’t want him to run.”
Kratz told Dr. Drew that he had suicidal thoughts after “this whole thing kind of blew up,” referring to the Avery Case and an Associated Press report exposing racy texts he sent to a 25-year-old woman while Kratz was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend.
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Prison Emails Are Released
In June 2016, USA Today obtained more than 1,900 pages of emails after the publication requested the documents under state open records laws. The paper asked for emails sent or received by staff that pertained to Avery, Dassey or “Making a Murderer.”
In July 2016, it was announced that “Making a Murderer” is set to return to Netflix with new episodes that are already in production.
The Season 2 installments will follow up with Avery and co-defendant Dassey as their respective investigative and legal teams challenge their convictions.
In August 2016, Dassey had his conviction overturned.
Federal magistrate judge William E. Duffin granted Dassey’s writ for a petition of habeas corpus, finding that his imprisonment was unlawful because his confession to the murder of Teresa Halbach was involuntary.
In reaching that decision, Duffin wrote that the “misconduct” of Len Kachinsky, Dassey’s court-appointed attorney, was “indefensible.”
On Aug. 27, 2016, Zellner filed a motion demanding physical evidence from the murder of Teresa Halbach for further scientific testing that she claims didn’t exist during the trial.
In the filing, Zellner revealed that “Mr. Avery has already completed a series of tests that will conclusively establish his innocence” and that she intends to reveal the identity of an alternate suspect once she has the test results.
On Sept. 2, 2016, Zellner tweeted a picture of a man she helped exonerate in a murder case, who held a sign saying "It is over." A spokesperson from the Wisconsin DOJ denied all media speculation about the fate of Dassey.
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State Will Appeal Dassey's Overturned Conviction
The state of Wisconsin said they would appeal Dassey's overturned conviction, saying that his confession "was voluntary and the investigators did not use constitutionally impermissible tactics."
Netflix
Avery Gets Engaged
On Sept. 24, 2016, news broke that Avery is engaged to be married. The lucky lady is Lynn Hartman, identified as a legal secretary — which might come in handy — from Las Vegas. The couple reportedly dated for eight months, but only met in person once.
Steven Avery Project
Nevermind, Avery Is NOT Engaged
On Oct. 1, 2016 came the news that Avery has dumped Hartman because he believes she “is a golddigger,” Avery’s friend Sandra Greenman wrote on Facebook.
Brendan Dassey Will Be Released
On Nov. 14, 2016, a judge ordered Dassey’s supervised release, pending possible retrial.
According to court documents obtained by TheWrap, U.S. Magistrate Judge William E. Duffin granted Dassey’s motion for release -- conditional upon his supervision by the U.S. Probation Office. Dassey will not be allowed to obtain a passport and can only travel in the court’s Eastern District of Wisconsin. He is not allowed to possess a weapon or any controlled substances.
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Wisconsin DOJ Files Emergency Motion
On Nov. 15, 2016, Attorney General Brad Schimel filed an emergency motion to stay Dassey’s release.
Fox
Dassey Will Be Home for Thanksgiving
Dassey appeared headed home for Thanksgiving 2016 after the judge in his case rejected the state’s latest motion.
According to a Wisconsin Department of Justice release obtained by TheWrap, Dassey will be discharged from prison no later than Friday at 8 p.m. Attorney General Brad Schimel plans to file an emergency motion on Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit seeking a stay of this release order.
Netflix
Nope, He Won't Be Home For Thanksgiving
On Nov. 17, 2016, the judge ordered that Dassey remain in prison pending an appeal of his overturned conviction, Attorney General Brad Schimel said.
“Moments ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit granted the State of Wisconsin’s motion to stay U.S. Magistrate Judge William Duffin’s order to release Mr. Brendan Dassey. Mr. Dassey will remain in prison pending the outcome of the appeal,” Schimel’s office said in a release.
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Fellow Inmate Says Avery Confessed to the Murder
Joseph Evans, who is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife, alleged in a nine-page letter published on the Rockford Advocate that Avery described raping and killing Halbach.
“He said he put the knife to Teresa’s throat as he guided her to his bedroom,” Evans wrote. “Steven said Teresa was crying and begging him not to kill her.”
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Zellner Alleges Teresa Halbach May Have Been Killed by Ex-Boyfriend
In June 2017, Zellner filed a 1,200-page notice for post conviction relief in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, in which she alleged that Teresa Halbach’s ex-boyfriend may have killed her.
The ex-boyfriend, Ryan Hillegas, has not responded to requests for comment.
Twitter
Federal Appeals Court Upholds Ruling That Dassey’s Confession Was Coerced
In June 2017, a federal appeals court upheld the ruling that Dassey’s conviction was coerced and he should be released from prison.
The majority of the three-judge panel agreed with Judge William Duffin’s August ruling that Dassey’s confession of the murder of Teresa Halbach was involuntary and that investigators violated Dassey’s rights.
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State Requests Rehearing in Dassey's Case
In July 2017, the Wisconsin Department of Justice requested a rehearing by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit after the federal appeals court said his conviction was coerced.
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Avery Denied New Trial
In October 2018, Avery was denied a new trial by a Wisconsin judge.
Judge Angela Sutkiewicz ruled that Avery had failed “to establish any grounds that would trigger the right to a new trial in the interests of justice.”
Zellner then told TheWrap that she would be filing a motion to vacate the judge’s order and that she plans to conduct further testing and amend his petition with new witness affidavits.
Netflix
Judge Rejects Avery's Bid For New Trial, Again
In November 2017, Avery's request for a new trial was rejected by Judge Sutkiewicz again.
According to the Post-Crescent, the ruling comes after Zellner appealed her filings to a higher court.
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Brendan Dassey's Case
In June 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear Brendan Dassey’s murder case. As is typical for such denials, no reason was given for passing on the appeal.
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Avery Denied a Trial, Again
In September 2018, Avery was denied a new trial by Sheboygan County Circuit Court judge Angela Sutkiewicz.
According to the Post-Crescent, Avery's attorneys sought to supplement the record with a CD they argued contains "exculpatory, material evidence" that was reportedly only disclosed to them in April. Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, argued that the state failed to disclose the disc and violated his right to a fair trial, therefore arguing for a new trial.
Netflix
Netflix Will Release a Second Season
Netflix officially announced a season season in September 2018. "Making a Murderer Part 2" will hit Netflix globally on Oct. 19.
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Catch up before you dive back into the lives of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey
After nearly three years, "Making a Murderer Part 2" is here. Before you dive back into Netflix's true-crime phenomenon, here's a look back at how the original docuseries changed the lives of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey, who were convicted for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.
Netflix
Netflix
