"Good Hair" - A film

Today is the last day of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Every year at TIFF, I decide on a few movies to watch during the festival. One of the films I watched this year is titled “Good Hair”. It is a documentary produced by Chris Rock. It attempts to investigate mostly the social and economical facet of the black hair industry in America.

I enjoyed the movie and I am happy to hear that it will be coming out in theatres in October. I am not sure if it will show in theaters in London, Lagos and Toronto however, I encourage you to look out for the film and make time to watch it if you can.

By hearing the name I expected that the film makers would discuss the origin of the hair relaxer and where the notion of good hair versus bad hair among African Americans came from. I think this would have given viewers some contextual basis to most of the other things that were shown in the film. Without even a brief history it seemed like African American women (and some men) are just being over-the-top when it comes to their hair. Perhaps they were looking more to show what “happens” today regarding African American hair instead of what “happened” regarding it.

It would also have been nice to have looked into the issues that influence the decisions African American women make regarding their hair. These women don’t just get up and decide to spend $1,000 on a weave because it is available on the shelf in the store. There is a thought process and some reasoning that must go into the decisions they make regarding their hair.

There were some really funny scenes in the film that got me laughing for a long time. Beg me all you want but I will not tell you which scenes they are! There were also some scenes that just made my heart sink. At the end, I am reminded why I wear my hair natural. I will say it again – I enjoyed the film and will most likely own it when it comes out on DVD.

Don’t be too bothered that some of our “hair secrets” are being revealed. African Americans (and blacks in general) are a large group of people and it is really refreshing to see films and documentaries made by this group for this group and about this group. We are cute but not perfect! Once in a while, our imperfections come to light and we just gotta say “Hey, let’s get that fixed so that we can be better.”

So watch out for “Good Hair” in theaters in October 2009. It will make for great viewing and a great discussion after. I am giving a hi-five to the ladies who watched this film with me and took the time to debate and discuss it after. Thank you C, I and L.

Omozo