Is Passing based on a true story?

Passing, the latest period piece to drop on Netflix, takes viewers back to 1920s New York. It’s in the larger-than-life city that we’re introduced to Clare and Irene, though director and writer Rebecca Hall manages to make the Big Apple feel small and insular to powerful effect.

The two women, who grew up in the same Harlem neighborhood, live disparate lives. Clare hides her Blackness, choosing to pass as a white woman in order to move more comfortably through the world. Irene only passes when it’s convenient, but she is firmly implanted in the charity work and intellectual fold of Black society on her side of town.

The friendship Clare and Irene strike up is a dangerous one that speaks to the history of racism in America, the way the color line has to be navigated for the sake of survival, and the plight of those who erase their identities in the hopes of having a better life.

“Better” as they hope it will be, however, comes with a steep price. For one, if they’re discovered to be a Black person moving through white circles incognito and pulling the wool over their eyes, it could mean death.

Passing zeroes in on a real life historical phenomena as told through a fictionalized account, but it errs uncomfortably close to the truth.

Is Passing based on a true story?

The film is based on the book of the same name by Nella Larsen which was published in 1929. Clare and Irene’s story isn’t based on two women Larsen knew or historical figures/known people but rather her own understanding of the color line, passing, and being Black in America.

The struggles each woman faces from racism to what it means to be a woman in an upper or middle class household as well as having to navigate their own understandings of race are all drawn from real life and history though not a specific real life story.

Passing is available to stream now on Netflix.