The movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
A new documentary, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, celebrates the beauty of Black girlhood through the age-old cotillion experience.
The Debutants follows three “debs”—Teylar Bradley, Amelia Boles, and Dedra Robbins—as they navigate the challenges of coming of age and make their transition into adulthood, NBC News reports. The film is directed by Contessa Gayles and produced by NBC News Studio.
The Debs wrestle with paying bills and financial management, family tension, and self-discovery in a judgmental world where adulthood comes all too quickly.
“I know a lot of times Black girls, in particular, are adultified at a young age,” Gayles said. “It kind of doesn’t allow us the opportunity to live fully in our girlhood and then to make that transition, and then have that transition be celebrated.”
It follows the 2022 Stark County Debutante Cotillion in Canton, Ohio, a Black debutante ball was revived to offer the cotillion experience as a program for Black girls, many of whom live below the poverty line. With cotillion experiences being predominantly white since their U.S. inception in the early 1800s, the documentary initiates a dialogue at the intersection of class, race, and gender.