| Collaborators | |
|---|---|
| Director | Tanya Read |
| One line synopsis | A partly dramatised examination, with animated sequences, of the origins and influences of black hair styling in Afro-Caribbean culture. |
| Description | The British Museum. Teacher leads group of young children round African sculpture exhibits. His rather boring presentation is interrupted by a statue coming to life and pointing to the "do not touch" sign. Female and male models on the catwalk; audience. VO "Fashion. Art. Politics. There’s more to our roots than we may realise." Photograph of Madame C J Walker, America’s first black millionairess, who, in 1905, invented products to help hair-straightening; photographs of hairdressing salon. Man suffering while processing his hair; VO explains that black people were encouraged to look more like whites. Photographs of the Empire Windrush and black immigrants. Commentary says they influenced British fashion and many black hair businesses grew up in major cities. Couple visiting cinema showing I Passed for White (1960). Couple reading newspaper with headline reporting riots at 1976 Notting Hill Carnival; they and their friends all have afro hairstyles. Couple leaving cinema in 1993 are handed anti-racist leaflet. Photographs of ninth century bronze "head of Queen Mother of Benin" and hairstyles from different African cultures; man carving. Young men with decorative patterns clipped into their hair. Bronzes. Ivory carving of head with hairstyle depicting Portuguese traders. Images from classical Egypt showing ceremonial beards and elaborate wigs, etc. Little girl having her hair combed. VO says that many myths relating to hair care – such as cutting it at birth and death – see hair as linking material and spirit worlds. Mother burns girl’s shed hair in candle. Children in one Yoruba village who are born with lots of hair are considered symbols of prosperity; representation of story of Samson who regained his wisdom, strength and faith when his hair grew back, a belief reflected in Rastafarianism attitudes to hair. People (including Tanya Read) with locks. VO explains the term "dread", and says that such hairstyles upset "the conformist establishment". Dancers silhouetted in front of animated painted background. Commentary talks about "funky dread" as epitomising the hybrid culture of the 1980s. Barber cutting elaborate patterns into man’s hair. VO says such hair styles reflect the mixing of reggae, hip hop, jazz and funk, and marking a "crossover between black American and black British cultures". DJ and people in club; two men discuss a young woman who rejects their advances and talks to her girlfriends about hair. DJ introduces Taiwo Ogunnaike who performs a poem about hair under the credits. Actor in costume says "To weave – or not to weave. That is the question." |
| Production company | Black Light |
| Running time | 12 minutes |
| Full credits | Written, Directed and Produced by Tanya Read; |
| Year | 1994 |
| Film segment | Can I Touch It - ACE410.2 |
| Web address (URL) | https://player.bfi.org.uk/free |