Why would someone who doesn’t care for dolls make a documentary about them?

That’s the question director Lagueria Davis asks herself in the new documentary Black Barbie, now available on Netflix, and in doing so she discovers a family connection to the creation of the first non-white doll in Mattel’s Barbie doll line.

Davis begins the documentary with a visit to her aunt, Beulah Mitchell, who unlike Davis was a very big fan of dolls. When Davis explored the reasons behind that, she learned that her aunt, who worked at Mattel for 44 years, was able to get close enough to Mattel head Ruth Handler to suggest that the company create Black dolls. (Handler’s answer: “We will see!”)

And that was the genesis of the documentary.

For the record, the first Black doll was a Black version of Barbie’s cousin, Francie, which came out in 1967 and was the same doll mold with a darker skin tone. Two years later, Mattel issued a celebrity doll -only the second it ever made – based on actress Diahann Carroll’s TV character, Julia. They also created another Black doll, Barbie’s friend Christie. But Barbie, the main character in the doll line, was still only white.

The movie does more than just diving into the history of who came up with the idea a Black doll and why, by diving into history of mass-marketed dolls and the impact of there being only white dolls available. A ground-breaking study by Doctors Kenneth and Mamie Clark, who gave Black children a choice of Black and White dolls to play with. The children preferred the white dolls and even ascribed good attributes to the white dolls and bad attributes to the Black dolls. The study was so powerful that several Supreme Court Justices named it as the most significant reason they ruled to end public school desegregation in the landmark 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision.

The crux of the documentary, though, celebrates the creation of not just Black dolls, but the first Black Barbie, by interviewing Mattel luminaries like Kitty Black Perkins, who designed the first Black doll named Barbie, which was released in 1980, as well as designer Stacey McBride-Irby, who introduced a later line of Black dolls highlighting mentorship and community.

Davis also includes high-profile speakers like U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, writer/producer Shonda Rhimes (who also produced the documentary), actress Gabourey Sidibe and many more, discussing the impact of finally having a Black Barbie – and other Black dolls – to identify with. Davis also includes recent studies with children and dolls to show how attitudes have – and haven’t changed.

The documentary isn’t just a tribute to Mattel, though; Davis takes the toy giant to task for a lack of marketing for their Black dolls, both back in 1980 and today, and for continuing to present the original, white Barbie as the face of the doll line in all but a few contexts. But the process of making the documentary changed Davis’s heart and mind about dolls, and this moving, insightful and informative film is a definite must-watch for Barbie fans and non-fans alike.

Black Barbie is available to stream on Netflix now.