Hope Is of a Different Color: 20‑Question Quiz

This quiz covers the full scope of Hope Is of a Different Color — from its biographical profiles and historical essays to the analysis of short films and Cold‑War cultural politics. Each question is based on evidence from the book's 32 chapters. The answer key follows after all 20 questions.

Plot & Sequence (8 questions)

1. In which decade did Mostafa Derkaoui, Abdelkader Lagtaa, and other Moroccan filmmakers study at the Łódź Film School?
   A) 1950s B) 1960s–1970s C) 1980s D) 1990s

2. Which short film gives the book its title?
   A) Guerrilla B) The Adoption C) But Hope Is of a Different Color D) People of the Red Ocher

3. What historical event triggered the state‑orchestrated anti‑Semitic purge of March 1968 in Poland?
   A) The Korean War B) The Six‑Day War C) The Prague Spring D) The fall of the Berlin Wall

4. Which Kenyan filmmaker studied at Łódź and went on to direct Kenya's first feature film?
   A) John Alex Maina Karanja B) Sao Gamba C) Jakub Barua D) Peter Pages Bwire

5. What is the title of Kaweh Pur Rahnama's short film about a Vietnamese war orphan adopted by a U.S. soldier?
   A) Hibernatus B) The Rider C) No Way Back, Johnny D) Sabou

6. Which chapter of the book provides a list of every international student enrolled at Łódź between 1959 and 1989?
   A) Chapter 2 B) Chapter 3 C) Chapter 19 D) Chapter 32

7. What was the name of the university founded in Moscow to educate students from Africa, Asia, and Latin America?
   A) FAMU B) VGIK C) Lumumba University D) November 17 University

8. Which Czechoslovak documentary from 1968 openly discusses racism in an Eastern Bloc society?
   A) Black and White B) The Noose C) Cellar People D) Miriam

Character Motivation (5 questions)

1. Why did Brian Scott choose Poland for his studies?
   A) He received a scholarship from the United Nations and had read about Solidarity and Lech Wałęsa.
   B) Poland offered the most generous stipend in the Eastern Bloc.
   C) He wanted to train at the Łódź Film School.
   D) His family had Polish roots.

2. Why did the seven Moroccan filmmakers (including Lagtaa and Derkaoui) choose Łódź over IDHEC in Paris?
   A) They were expelled from France for political activism.
   B) IDHEC was too expensive for them.
   C) They were disappointed with IDHEC and sought training in the Eastern Bloc.
   D) The Moroccan government forced them to study in Poland.

3. What motivated Władysław Gomułka to label “Zionists” as a fifth column in 1967?
   A) A series of student protests in Warsaw.
   B) The Six‑Day War and the perceived disloyalty of Polish Jews.
   C) Pressure from the Soviet Union.
   D) The rise of the Solidarity movement.

4. Why did Jakub Barua fuse oneiric and political styles in his short films?
   A) He was required to do so by the school curriculum.
   B) He was influenced by Wojciech Has and Wanda Jakubowska and wanted to express a postcolonial perspective.
   C) He had no other cinematic models available.
   D) The film school banned purely political filmmaking.

5. What was the primary motivation for The Polish Review to project Poland as racism‑free?
   A) To attract tourists from the Global South.
   B) To recruit students from Africa and Asia and to bolster Cold‑War soft‑power propaganda.
   C) To distract from economic problems in Poland.
   D) To win an international journalism prize.

Theme & Symbol (4 questions)

1. What does the title “But Hope Is of a Different Color” primarily symbolize?
   A) The rainbow flag used by Eastern Bloc peace movements.
   B) Hope that emerges from marginalised, non‑European perspectives and alternative futures.
   C) The political promise of socialism.
   D) The colour of the Łódź Film School's logo.

2. What is “double exoticism” as defined in Chapter 7?
   A) The simultaneous strangeness of the communist past and racialized otherness.
   B) A travelogue genre that depicts two foreign cultures.
   C) The experience of being both a filmmaker and a student.
   D) A style of documentary that uses two cameras.

3. How does the concept of the “white gaze” operate in the book?
   A) It was absent in Eastern Europe because of socialist ideology.
   B) It operated under the Soviet race‑blind veil, subjecting Black bodies to racialised scrutiny in everyday encounters.
   C) It was only found in Soviet cinema.
   D) It is a metaphor for the camera lens used by Polish directors.

4. What does JAM Karanja's short film Born in Chains symbolise?
   A) The political imprisonment of Polish dissidents.
   B) The double shackles of racial discrimination and disability in a white world.
   C) The loss of cultural identity among Polish immigrants.
   D) The physical chains used in colonial slavery.

Synthesis (3 questions)

1. How does the book connect the history of Polish film education to Third Cinema?
   A) By arguing that Third Cinema was invented by Polish instructors.
   B) By showing that Global South students at Łódź adapted Polish art‑cinema models — Has's oneiric style and Jakubowska's political engagement — to create a variant of Third Cinema that addressed colonial and postcolonial struggles.
   C) It claims that Third Cinema was suppressed in Poland.
   D) The book focuses only on documentary, not Third Cinema.

2. Compare the outcomes for Moroccan and Kenyan filmmakers who studied at Łódź, as described in the book.
   A) Both faced identical censorship and had all their films lost.
   B) Moroccan filmmakers (Lagtaa, Derkaoui, etc.) had their student films banned or seized by Moroccan authorities, while Kenyan filmmaker Sao Gamba produced the first Kenyan feature film (Kolormask) but his celluloid works remain largely inaccessible.
   C) Both groups abandoned filmmaking after returning home.
   D) Kenyan filmmakers were more successful because they had government support.

3. What does the book argue about the myth of race‑blind Eastern Europe?
   A) That Eastern Europe was indeed completely race‑free.
   B) That racism existed under the surface, perpetuated by the “white gaze” and propaganda, and that the Cold‑War internationalist discourse could not shield Black students from everyday discrimination.
   C) That only the Soviet Union was racist while its satellites were not.
   D) That race became irrelevant after 1989.

Answer Key

1. B) 1960s–1970s. Chapter 23 notes the Derkaoui brothers, Lagtaa, and others studied at Łódź between 1961 and 1971.
2. C) But Hope Is of a Different Color by Abdelkader Lagtaa. This is the title‑giving film mentioned in Chapter 2 and the filmography in Chapter 32.
3. B) The Six‑Day War. Chapter 9 explains that Gomułka used the war to label “Zionists” as a fifth column, triggering the 1968 purge.
4. B) Sao Gamba. Chapter 27 details his career: he made Kenya’s first feature film Kolormask (1986).
5. C) No Way Back, Johnny. Chapter 19 describes Rahnama’s short about a Vietnamese orphan adopted by a U.S. GI.
6. B) Chapter 3, titled “Extant List, Enrolled Students, Selected Film Stills,” provides the registry of international students from 1959–1989.
7. C) Lumumba University (also called Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University). Chapter 5 lists it among institutions founded for students from the Global South.
8. A) Black and White. Chapter 15 discusses this 1968 FAMU student film that openly documents racism in Czechoslovakia.
9. A) Chapter 13 reports that Scott was influenced by Solidarity, Wałęsa, and Pope John Paul II and was funded by the UN.
10. C) Chapter 23 states they were disappointed with IDHEC and sought training in the Eastern Bloc, choosing Łódź.
11. B) Chapter 9 describes how the Six‑Day War allowed Gomułka to frame Polish Jews as a disloyal “fifth column.”
12. B) Chapter 19 explains that Barua was mentored by Has (oneiric style) and influenced by Jakubowska (political cinema), fused with his own postcolonial background.
13. B) Chapter 15 argues that The Polish Review projected a racism‑free image to attract students and serve propaganda purposes during the Cold War.
14. B) The phrase recurs throughout the book (especially Chapter 2 and Chapter 31) as a symbol of alternative, non‑European hope.
15. A) Chapter 7 defines “double exoticism” as the simultaneous strangeness of the communist past and racial otherness.
16. B) Chapter 13 demonstrates that the white gaze functioned beneath the official race‑blind rhetoric, as in Brian Scott’s tram incident and the stares documented in The Polish Review evidence.
17. B) Chapter 19 analyses Karanja’s Born in Chains as a visual metaphor for racial and disability‑based imprisonment.
18. B) Chapter 19 concludes that the student shorts form a “unique variant of Third Cinema” by combining Has and Jakubowska with post‑colonial subjects.
19. B) Chapters 23 and 27 respectively document Moroccan censorship (films banned or lost) and Sao Gamba’s first feature (but his films are inaccessible and need digitisation).
20. B) Chapter 13 explicitly argues that racism existed under the Soviet veil, supported by evidence from Scott, Assare‑Addo, Mulekezi, and the Black and White documentary.

Want more? Visit the book homepage for a full summary, or check the Questions & Answers and the explanation of the ending.