The election of America's first black President, Barack Obama was preceded by decades of prominent African American Civil Rights movement. Will Obama's role model influence the urban black youth who remain in social periphery? The film's American Director Joe Davidow explores the current realities facing America from a European viewpoint.

Why do young African Americans remain outside the 'American Dream' despite decades of prominent Civil Rights movement? The American Director Joe Davidow explores the current realities from a European viewpoint.

The election of President Obama was preceded by decades of prominent African American civil rights movement. What have the struggles gained? Today, with the first Black President in the office, AA's are worse off both socially and legally than before.
Ice Age and the American Apartheid is a film about the current state of mind in the US – specifically about young African Americans and their position in the society. The film explores the present-day American psyche through interviews, media representation and music. The question is what have the struggles in the past decades gained for AA's? The film will expose a hollow freedom for the minority group that remains segregated in today's America.
The film's American Director Joe Davidow looks at his native country from an outsider's perspective. He has lived overseas for more than twenty years, and so is able to observe the changes in American society from a unique position. He reflects on what has changed in the America that he knew. He grew up in NYC in the 1950's and 1960's. In the 1970's he left America in order to study in Europe. Davidow has lived and worked in Finland since 1978, visiting the US regularly. Davidow's personal story is one of the film's narratives as he explores the mood and the realities facing both AA's and the white communities in the present.
President Obama was elected as the first African American President when the situation of a large part of the AA community still remains in a disproportionably biased position. For example, the majority of AA babies are born to unwed parents and their life expectancy is 5 ½ years less than for their fellow whites'. The property ownership of white Americans is ten times higher than that of the AA's . In 2000 nationally, 14% of African American males were disenfranchised from voting through crime legislation.
How far did the Civil Rights Act change the way the US society treats the AA community today? Where are today's Martin Luther Kings and Malcom X's? How were the politically conscious texts of Soul and R&B so quickly converted into Gangsta Rap? Prof. Cornel West of Princeton University sums it up by designating this post Civil Rights/Voting Rights Act period: - “the ‘Ice Age’ after the end of American Apartheid”.