Hidden Colors is the name of an ongoing documentary filmseries directed by Tariq Nasheed and produced through King Flex Entertainment, to explain and describe the marginalizing of African Americans in America and the world. The first four films were funded by separate Kickstarter campaigns, and the fifth film was funded using Indiegogo.
Series
The first film in the series, Hidden Colors: The Untold History Of People Of Aboriginal, Moor, and African Descent, was given a limited theatrical release on April 14, 2011. The second in the series, Hidden Colors 2: The Triumph of Melanin, was released the following year on December 6, 2012. The third film in the series, Hidden Colors 3: The Rules of Racism, was released on June 26, 2014. The fourth film in the series, Hidden Colors 4: The Religion of White Supremacy was successfully funded on Kickstarter in March 2015. The fifth film in the series, Hidden Colors 5: The Art of Black Warfare, was released in August 2019.
''Hidden Colors: The Untold History of People of Aboriginal, Moor, and African Descent''
The first installment in the series was released on April 14, 2011. The film discusses the role of African and aboriginal people in history and argues some achievements have not been properly recorded or credited to them. Hidden Colors features several interviews with commentators on subjects such as the race and appearance of Jesus Christ and the reasons behind the end of slavery. The film also states Africans were the first to circumnavigate the globe, there was "pre-European settlement in the United States", that Africans created the first Asian dynasties, and that the Vatican created Egyptology.
The second installment was released on December 6, 2012 and was also directed by Nasheed. The documentary further explores issues surrounding people of African and aboriginal descent such as the global African presence and the treatment of Black economic communities in America. Other film topics include the investigation of melanin.
The radio program Powertalk hosted by Lorraine Jacques-White called Hidden Colors "eye-opening and necessary." A review of Hidden Colors 2 published in The Village Voice dismissed much of the documentary as conspiracy, saying that Nasheed demonstrates "a seeming total inability to separate gibble-gabble from revealed truth, vital social concern from talk about Chemtrails and digressive subchapters with titles like 'The Hidden Truth About Santa Claus.'" The reviewer praised one contributor, Michelle Alexander, who the Voice noted was the only woman in the film, saying that "Her well-reasoned discussion of the American penal system is compelling, but it's an embarrassment that she should be placed alongside the likes of Dr. Phil Valentine, a metaphysician whose malarkey about AIDS is a low point, as is Umar Johnson's lionization of the late, unlamented Gaddafi and the odd nostalgia for segregation that runs throughout." BET described the series as "one of the most successful Black independent documentaries". Just before the premiere of Hidden Colors 5 in the UK, Nasheed announced on social media that he had been banned from entering the country by the Home Office. He was stopped from boarding a flight to the UK at the Los Angeles International Airport. Reportedly, the UK government stated that Nasheed is "not conducive to the public good."
