Visual Review: Hair Love

For this week’s visual review, I decided to cover the animated short film called Hair Love. This short film was nominated for an Oscar in 2020 and ended up winning the award. Matthew A. Cherry tells a heartfelt story of an African American father learning how to do his daughter’s hair for the first time. Although the website provided a variety of short films to review, I felt as if this film in particular stood out. I loved that it was an animated short film. I feel like animation broadens the audience and viewers. I also really enjoyed what Hair Love was about. Since the film industry began, there’s always been a lack of representation in mainstream animated projects. Instead of continuing to make films with a lack of representation, this film did the opposite. The focus of the story was young men and women of color dealing with something as simple as hair.

Something that stood out to me when watching the short film was the color scheme used. Everything in the film was full of color; It was easy on the eyes. When they wanted certain objects to stand out (hair accessories), they made sure it was represented with brighter colors. I also noticed that many in the things in the film were exaggerated. For example, the main idea behind the film was a father trying to do his daughters hair before they had to go somewhere. Although this is a challenge for many people, including parents, the film portrayed it as if it was almost impossible. In one scene, it shows the dad in a boxing ring competing against his daughters set of hair. I thought this was a clever idea and an exaggeration of how hard it can be to do one’s hair. In terms of production design, you could easily tell this was supposed to be a modern-day short film. The little girl is relying on a video application to do her hair. The video looks like something you’d find on YouTube; there are step by step instructions on how to do the hair style she wants. I also noticed that many of the shots within the short film were pan and tilt camera movements.

Although the concept of this film was simple, the message and meaning behind it was strong. Diversity within media has never been prominent. There has always been a struggle to include representation of different ethnicities and culture. Within the last decade, media and film have attempted to make the industry more inclusive and diverse. I loved that this film included something so simple and somewhat innocent. You don’t realize why her hair is so important to her until the end of the short film. The reason she wanted to perfect her hairstyle was because she was visiting her sick mother in the hospital who seemed to have recently lost her hair. I thought the short film was like a full circle experience. At first the audience is questioning, why is doing your hair so important. By the end of the film, you realize it’s for her mom.

To watch the short film, click the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNw8V_Fkw28