Hidden Colors is a series of documentary films directed by Tariq Nasheed and produced by King Flex Entertainment, to explain what Nasheed claims is the marginalizing of people of African descent in America and across the world.
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.
Cast
Tariq Nasheed
Phil Valentine
Frances Cress Welsing
Shahrazad Ali
Sabir Bey
Booker T. Coleman
Umar Johnson
Hidden Colors 2: The Triumph of Melanin
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.
Cast
Michelle Alexander
KRS-One
Tariq Nasheed
Runoko Rashidi
Phil Valentine (Not the talk show host) James Small Claud Anderson Tony Browder Booker T. Coleman Umar Johnson
Hidden Colors 3: The Rules of Racism
The third installment was released on June 26, 2014. The film focuses on the topic of race, racism, and history within the United States.
Cast
Shahrazad Ali
Carol Anderson
David Banner
Dick Gregory
Paul Mooney
Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Nas
Tariq Nasheed
Killer Mike
Phil Valentine
Frances Cress Welsing
George Fraser
Joy Degruy
Umar Johnson
Kaba Kamene
Hidden Colors 4: The Religion of White Supremacy
Tariq Nasheed
Jennifer Tosch
Tony Browder
Llaila Afrika
Boyce Watkins
Robin Walker
Phil Valentine
James Small
Eric Sheppard
Patricia Newton
Nteri Nelson
Killer Mike
Kaba Kamene
Jim Brown
Delbert Blair
Hidden Colors 5: The Art of Black Warfare
Tariq Nasheed
Claud Anderson
Brother Polight
Kaba Kamene
Shahrazad Ali
Ice-T
Chuck D
David Banner
Rizza Islam
Charm Tims
Michael Jai White
Jabari Osaze
Kmt Shockley
James Small
Reception
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 Phil Valentine, a metaphysician whose malarkey about AIDS ("the so-called immunity system of the homosexual") 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."
The Root called the series "semi-factual."