Black girls with white-girl bone structure—that’s what casting agents in “The Colour of Beauty” say the fashion industry seeks. The NFB short documentary, directed by Elizabeth St. Philip, exposes the systemic disadvantages faced by minority models like Jamaican Canadian Renee Thompson.

Schema Magazine and the NFB’s Work for All initiative are teaming up to present the film on Sunday (May 16) at 7 p.m. at the Museum of Vancouver (1100 Chestnut Street), with a panel discussion featuring journalist-actor Olivia Cheng (Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking ).

Schema coeditor Christina Jung acknowledges that a greater representation of diversity has been made in recent years in magazine advertisements and fashion spreads. However, she points out that the standards by which models are judged remain Caucasian-based. “The ideal image of what they consider beautiful or what they want in a fashion show is very Eurocentric,” she said by phone. “In the film, they also did mention that they want somebody like Naomi Campbell; they want an African-American model who’s basically the body of a white model dipped in chocolate.”