Weaving personal interviews from black men and women describing the dream of Farrah Fawcett ‘grow down' hair with an overview of the history, beauty and cultural symbolism of traditional African hair-styles, filmmaker T. Nicole Atkinson's anecdotal look at the wild and woolly world of African-American hair is as entertaining as it is educational. Many African-Americans are engaged in a "revolutionary act": the personal decision to stop the presses, perms, hot combs, and abuse of textured hair and go natural. That's not the 70's "afro," but rather dreadlocks, and this quasi-how-to (wash the hair, twist and in 6 months to a year the hair will permanently "lock up") revives and honors an important tradition in many ancient cultures. In America, however, "dreadlocks" are very often connected with hateful racist stereotypes (one word association exercise brought up the following: "unkempt," "crazy," "criminal element," "dirty," "dope-smoking," homeless" and "cult member"). In fact, many African-Americans, after deciding to ‘lock up' their hair discovered a sense of separation from the society at large, their own community and, most surprisingly, criticism from family and friends. This compelling video with its hip camera angles and witty celebration of lockin' up and individuality, speaks not just to African-Americans, but to all of us about the need to broaden our ridiculously narrow concept of beauty. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (N. Plympton)
Lockin' Up
(1997) 29 min. $99: public libraries, $195: colleges & universities. Women Make Movies. PPR. Vol. 14, Issue 4
Lockin' Up
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