NEW YORK (Variety) -- The very American subject of being caught between two racial worlds, as tackled in such vintage pictures as "Pinky,'' "Imitation of Life'' and "The Searchers,'' would seem even more difficult to treat in the age of integration and political correctness.

But New Yorker Alison Swan, a black, Bermuda-born debuting director breathes fresh life into the genre. While well-directed, this crisply shot picture is a bit schematic in its characterisations. But its fluid rhythms, fine comic timing and full-blooded lead character make it universal in its appeal and, for most of its length, a joy to watch.

With a bigger budget, Swan could prove a formidable talent, but even this low-budget yarn could find a limited niche with proper handling. Raised privileged in suburban Westchester County, just outside New York City, Nia (Karyn Parsons) lives the life of a white yuppie; she's the child of divorced '60s-era activist parents, a black mom and white lawyer dad. A successful copy writer at an ad agency, Nia suffers a bout of conscience when called upon to push a new beer on young ghetto blacks, and she quits her job.

She has two goals: to write a book and to find her racial identity. Her girlfriends and her male love interests seem almost too equally divided between white and black, but her vacillation between racial identities manifests itself in funny, intentionally over-the-top fantasy sequences (Southern victim of segregation, streetwise ghetto girl, etc.) as she labours over the keyboard trying to figure out how to approach her book. (She also remembers a somewhat cliched incident at the zoo as a child, when she stared at a white polar bear swimming in a pool -- a recurring sequence that could easily be excised from the picture.) Through the help of a neighbour -- a potential love interest -- she finds her own voice (a bit too literally) and emerges from her writer's block as a fully synthesised mixed-race individual. Swan, who has made several documentaries on the black experience, has a gift for capturing the sights and sounds of New York. The Nia that she and actress Parsons have created is something of a Mary Richards as a "cafe au lait'' (a too-oft-recurring metaphor in picture), an attractive, energetic young woman in the big city moving, humorously, from one personal drama to another.

Swan has Nia finding her reflection through men, like black Afro-centric professor Lewis (Isaiah Washington), white ad agency partner Matt (Eric Thal) and white musician neighbour Joe (Diego Serrano), rather than reducing her to a picture-perfect p.c. stereotype of a liberated woman. Her black (Rosalyn Coleman) and white (Heidi Schanz) girlfriends offer comic relief to Nia's confusion. But the final sequence of Nia's revelation is far too smug and out of character with tone of film. Parsons (best known for playing the snobby daughter in "Fresh Prince of Bel Air'') is a stunning, talented actress, and gifted Serrano could be the next movie hunk. The fine soundtrack is eclectic, moving among blues and soul numbers. Cynthia Scheider's precise editing and Christopher Norr's cinematography elevate the project to a professional level.

New Yorker Alison Swan, a black, Bermuda-born debuting director breathes fresh life into the genre. While well-directed, this crisply shot picture is a bit schematic in its characterisations. But its fluid rhythms, fine comic timing and full-blooded lead character make it universal in its appeal and, for most of its length, a joy to watch. With a bigger budget, Swan could prove a formidable talent, but even this low-budget yarn could find a limited niche with proper handling.

ALISON SWAN -- The Bermudian is seen accepting the Entertainment Weekly Audience Choice Award at the end of the Bermuda International Film Festival during the Spring of this year.

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