"Good Hair" and Other Dubious Distinctions (2011)
- Genre
- documentary film
- Country
- United States
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
This documentary examines how standards of beauty like straight hair and lighter skin persist within the black community. A sociologist filmmaker uses interviews and cultural critique to explore how such preferences affect self-esteem. The film argues these ideas are a form of symbolic violence that harms people across all communities.
thoughtfulacademicconversationalcriticaleducationaleye-openingreflectivepersonal
What happens
"Good Hair" and Other Dubious Distinctions is a 2011 documentary film directed, written and edited by Camille S. DeBose. The film focuses on cultural language and practices that negatively impact the development of a healthy sense of self. The filmmaker's commentary asserts a criticism of the way wavy hair, lighter skin and a slender nose are still considered more attractive in the black community in light of historical and contemporary movements which have sought to liberate black self-esteem. As a practicing and teaching sociologist, the filmmaker sought to illuminate the notion of symbolic violence through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu and spark conversation not just in the black community but all other communities as well. Cultural practices which value some features but not others are issues common to every family and every community. For the filmmaker this is an issue of valuing and finding beauty in every human being. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
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The Souls of Black Girls (2008)
Subjects of Desire (2021)
My Nappy Roots: A Journey Through Black Hair-itage (2005)
Dark Girls (2012)
Black Art: In the Absence of Light (2021)
America the Beautiful (2007)
The Double Conscious: Race & Rhetoric (2011)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.