The director of the new documentary "Little White Lie" tells the story of the day she learned she was bi-racial.
Lacey Schwartz grew up in a white, Jewish household and was led to believe that she was white throughout her childhood - despite the occasional question of where her dark skin and curly hair came from.
Schwartz never questioned her ethnicity until she was applying for college and the application asked her to check a box. She always identified herself as white, but never checked a box off on her application.
She was accepted to Georgetown University, who passed her information along to the campus' black student association based on a picture of her.
Naturally, Schwartz was confused when the association called her. This led to Schwartz seriously questioning her mother for the first time and finally learning that her biological father was actually black.
"If you looked too closely at it, it didn't make any sense, so we found ways to see what we wanted to believe," Schwartz says in the trailer. "I wasn't pretending I was something I wasn't. I actually grew up believing I was white."
A childhood friend interviewed in the trailer adds, " I always looked at you like you looked black ... but not that you were."
Although race was what led Schwartz, now 37, to produce the documentary she says the film discusses much more than that.
"I think the film's broader lesson is about the power of telling the truth, having difficult conversations and then moving forward," she said in the trailer.
"Little White Lie" is currently in limited theatrical release in three U.S. cities - New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Click here for the screening schedule.
The film is set to air on PBS in 2015.
Viewers can check out the trailer for "Little White Lie" here:
