Subscribe
Hellobeautiful Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Sony Pictures Animation / Sony Pictures Animation

Black fathers and daughters will get a healthy dose of representation when they go to the movies this weekend. Short animation film Hair Love will make its theatrical debut, playing ahead of The Angry Birds Movie 2. The short film explores the relationship between Zuri and her dad as he attempts to style her natural hair, a feeling Black fathers know all too well. The short features Issa Rae, who lends her voice to a young Zuri’s mother.

“Directed by Cherry (executive producer, BlacKkKlansman), Everett Downing Jr. (animator, Up, WALL·E), and Bruce W. Smith (creator, The Proud Family, animator, The Princess and the Frog), Hair Love is a collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation that was launched as a Kickstarter campaign in 2017 with a fundraising goal of $75,000. Strong support led to the campaign amassing nearly $300,000, making it the most highly-funded short film campaign in Kickstarter history,” reads the press release.

“To see this project go from a Kickstarter campaign to the big screen is truly a dream come true,” says Cherry. “I couldn’t be more excited for ‘Hair Love’ to be playing with ‘The Angry Birds Movie 2’ in front of a wide audience and for the world to see our touching story about a black father trying to figure out how to do his daughters hair for the very first time.”

Jordan Peele, Andrew Hawkins, Harrison Barnes, Yara and Keri Shahidi. The short’s associate producers include N’Dambi Gillespie, Gabrielle Union-Wade & Dwayne Wade Jr., Gabourey Sidibe, Stephanie Fredric and Claude Kelly.

Catch Hair Love in theaters August 14.

RELATED STORIES:

Nafisah Carter Went From Doing Hair In Her Dorm To Being A Celebrity Hair Stylist

The Ugly Problem With Chris Brown’s ‘Nice Hair’ Lyrics

For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.