Lacey Shwartz

The Cost of Inheritance

The Cost of Inheritance explores the complex issue of reparations in the United States and takes a personal approach to understanding our history, systemic injustices, and racial inequities. We follow descendants of enslavers and the enslaved as they are reckoning with their past and trying to find a just way forward. Opposing views and challenges to the concept of reparations are also heard in the exposition of our complicated history. The film introduces viewers to those who are working toward common ground, despite their differing perspectives. The protagonists launch conversations,  attempt to reconcile, and take specific actions that aspire to close the racial wealth gap in America. The disparate trajectory of lives, families, and communities impacted by structural racism unfolds through archival images of land, labor exploitation, and racial violence, set against a backdrop that depicts the pursuit of justice for Japanese internment survivors and survivors of the Holocaust.

Directed by Yoruba Richen, Produced by Lacey Shwartz and Mehret Mandefro

Speakers: Yoruba Richen, Lacey Shwartz, Mehret Mandefro, MD, PhD