Olga Nenya has 27 children. Four of them, now adults, are her biological children; the other 23 are adopted or foster children. Of those 23, 16 are biracial. Some residents of Sumy, Ukraine, consider Olga a saint, but many believe she is simply crazy. An inheritance from the Soviet era, a stigma persists here against interracial relationships, and against children born as the result of romantic encounters between Ukrainian girls and exchange students from Africa. For more than a decade, Olga has been caring for Black babies left in Ukrainian orphanages and raising them together so that they may support and protect one another.

Interviews with Neo-Nazis in Ukraine reveal the real dangers for a Black person in the streets of Ukraine. These white supremacist youth joke about their evening raids and how police seem to let them do it. Prosecutors are not particularly determined to give strict sentences to racially motivated crimes, and young thugs can get away with probation for beating someone nearly to death.

Olga sends her foster children to stay with host families in France and Italy for summer vacations and over Christmas, where they are cared for by families who have committed to helping disadvantaged Ukrainian youth since the Chernobyl disaster. Olga's kids now speak different languages, and the older girls chat in fluent Italian with each other even while cooking a vat of borscht. But Olga doesn't believe in international adoption and has refused to sign adoption papers from host families that wanted to adopt her kids. "At least when the kids grow up, they'll have a mother to blame for all the failures that will happen in their lives," she says.

Winner of the Best Canadian Feature Film at the prestigious Hot Docs Film Festival, FAMILY PORTRAIT IN BLACK AND WHITE is available for educational purchase on a two-disc special edition that includes two versions of the film, the theatrical and broadcast versions.