Documentary 'Good Hair' has roots in Birmingham to Comedian Chris Rock's

Comedian Chris Rock's newly released documentary, "Good Hair," has

some good connections in and around Birmingham.

Parts of the movie, which explores the lengths many African American women go through to change their hair, were filmed in Birmingham in 2007. Two Birmingham hair stylists are in the movie, and a Birmingham freelance film producer and a Miles College instructor worked as production assistants on the film.
"It actually puts us on the map," said independent film producer Jana Harris, who worked as a production assistant and showed Rock and his crew around the city during their weeklong visit. "People don't think of Birmingham as an ideal location (for filming.) But, I think having a movie of this magnitude shows other producers what they can do here."
Rock has said he got the idea for the movie, which was released nationally nine days ago, when one of his daughters asked him why she didn't have "good hair," referring to straight, long, flowing hair.
Determined to uncover why she would think that, Rock delved into African American hair culture with a documentary. He explored the multibillion dollar African American hair industry, and how African-American women have turned to relaxers to different their hair texture from overly curly to straight. Women also use weaves for convenience, to achieve different textures or to get a variety of looks.
While many African American women are content with the hair they were born with, there are still many, many others who seek to change it.
Rock interviewed everyday women and men in salons, barbershops and elsewhere in Birmingham, Atlanta, New York and Dallas. He also talked to several celebrities, including Nia Long, Maya Angelou and Raven Symone. Rock used humor to make people think.
"The movie deals with social issues in the black community such as economic empowerment and images of beauty," said Demetrius Newton Jr., a Miles College communications instructor who worked as a production assistant on the film. "Despite the fact that he presents it in a humorous manner, these are serious issues."
Part of Rock's research led him to Atlanta, where the Bronner Bros. hair company puts on an annual hair show competition. Birmingham stylist Tanya Crumel of Pedestals Salon was one of the four contestants.
Rock interviewed her and filmed her as she prepared for competition. Crumel's business partner, Kevin Kirk, is in the movie, too.
"I wasn't selected to be in the movie at first. They came there looking for Tanya," Kirk said. "They didn't actually know me. But, when they met me, and realized the history I had," he said they incorporated him into the story.
Kirk has won first place at three Bronner Bros.' hair shows, including in August when he took home $20,000 and a new Ford Taurus.
Since his third win and the movie's release, he's received requests to judge hair shows and teach classes; and a national magazine has asked him to review a hair product, he said.
Although Kirk and Crumel are happy about the movie's release, it comes at a time when they are in mourning. Crumel's 18 year old son and Huffman High School senior, Jeremy Crumel, was in a car accident on Oct. 25 and died two days later.
To give Crumel a break from everything, Kirk and others took her to see the film three days after Jeremy's death. who has appeared in a couple of episodes of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" to consult with one of the personalities about her wig line, is also in the movie as a contestant.
Harris said that while Rock was in town, they visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and restaurant Niki's West. She added that Rock interviewed Birmingham resident James Armstrong, the man who often cut the Rev. Martin Luther King's hair, but that piece didn't make it into the final cut.
The movie won the Special Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It is showing at Alabaster 14, Summit 16 and Trussville Stadium 16.

has women talking, Chris Rock’s ‘Hair’ documentary

For black women, hair has always been a don’t touch, don’t tell subject.
Comedian Chris Rock turned up the volume in his movie “Good Hair,” pondering why black women spend a fortune for straighter hair, dismissing their natural curl as inferior.
Fallout from the film has sparked a dialogue that brings the controversial subject the costs! the chemicals! out of the salon and onto Main Street.
“I found it a little disturbing,” said Tamara Buchanan, a Suffolk University graduate student.
Buchanan, who is working on a master’s in women’s health, went to look the film expecting Rock “to just make fun of our secret.”
“But I’m a little more educated for seeing it,” said the Roxbury resident, adding she was stunned to learn that the expensive weaves black women spend entire paychecks on are a product of a Hindu haircutting ritual in India.
Buchanan’s pal, Codie Anne Crew, agreed, “It makes you wonder.”
Larry Hamilton, a stylist at Patrice Vinci Salon on Newbury Street, who specializes in relaxers, said hair is a loaded topic for his clients. “It’s a self-esteem issue,” he said. “Coarser, curlier is bad.”
Hamilton, who charges $100 to $120 for chemical straightening, hadn’t seen “Good Hair.” Many of his clients wish they could wear their hair naturally, but get caught up trying to emulate celebrities, he said.
“In some places, if it’s natural, it’s not acceptable,” he said. “There are stigmas to it.”
Buchanan, who currently spent eight hours and $170 on synthetic twists at Helen’s Hair Connections in Roxbury, said the plastic extensions are easy to manage. Her pal, Crew, who had perms during high school, said her current style - natural - is more authentic than ones she’s had in the past.
“You grow into it and you grow into your own self,” she said.
Black hair’s only going to get more attention with the early December release of Disney’s first black-princess movie, “The Princess and the Frog,” and Lisa Price thinks that’s a good thing.

Price is the founder of Carol’s Daughter, a natural line of hair products, and earned Disney’s approval to market the official line of “The Princess and the Frog” shampoo, conditioner and detangler to stores such as Macy’s.
“It’s an honor,” said Price, who counts her 3 year old daughter among the impressionable audience that is hungry for a black princess role model.

“Whatever they had in their hair, that’s what I had in my hair”, Chris Rock

“I’m not saying anything about that I’m not saying anything about Kanye (West) and end up on some rap album somewhere,” said Chris Rock laughing during an on stage interview at the Toronto International Film Festival yesterday afternoon. And with that, he launched into a mini-rap, “‘I got money, Chris Rock aint funny…’ There are just too many things that rhyme with ‘Rock,’” he snapped. The Kanye topic came up at a packed auditorium in Toronto which turned out to see the comedian who is here supporting his doc, “Good Hair” and an audience member asked him what he thought about rapper Kanye West’s behavior at the MTV Video Music Awards over the weekend.
But Rock didn’t demure over a range of topics spanning politics, Michael Moore, the Obamas and even the Jacksons (who get a bit of a verbal beating) during the hour-long conversation hosted by TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers as part of the festival’s Maverick series. But it was hair, or specifically, the culture and economics behind black women’s hair, that took center stage. The genesis of his doc, which is screening as a Special Presentation at the festival, began when Rock’s young daughter asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” And in a style reminiscent of a Michael Moore film, Rock mixes humor and investigative journalism to explore the topic, from hair salons to laboratories and even the international trade in Indian and Korean hair, which form a cornerstone of a vast industry in which individuals pay thousands of dollars to maintain a perfect coiffe.
“Before the Obamas, the Jacksons were the first black family in America,” said Rock. “Whatever they had in their hair, that’s what I had in my hair growing up.” Chris Rock said he believed it was in the ‘70s when blacks in America were “finally free,” and it was reflected in their hair. Afros bounced proudly as African Americans turned away from the heavy product and relaxers embodied by Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis Junior. Rock laughed, recalling how he was the first black kid in his school growing up. “It was, you know - shitty,” he said of his days at school.
But, turning back to the Jacksons, Chris Rock had no problem tearing in on late pop star Michael Jackson.
“Poor Michael - I wonder if they have hair care products in Heaven, er - or in Hell, or whatever…,” he said, then turning to Powers seated with him on stage, “You know, I think they make him do shows in Heaven, and then they send him back to Hell.”
Though he was a fan of the Jacksons growing up, he clearly has gained their ire now that he’s famous, and with lines like that, it’s probably not surprising. “I met Michael once. He just glared at me… And I’ve met Janet, and she just glared at me… Back when I was a kid, if anyone had told me that one day the Jacksons will want to kick my ass, I would’ve said, ‘You’re crazy!’”
Rock reserved compliments, however, for filmmaker Michael Moore who also was in Toronto promoting his new film “Capitalism: A Love Story.”
“I’ve always been a big fan of Michael Moore ever since I saw ‘Roger & Me’ 20 years ago,” said Rock. “I thought, this is funny and smart.” He said the style of filmmaking prompted him back then to consider “Good Hair,” but docs had not hit their stride yet, so he shelved the idea until his daughter brought up the topic years later and Moore and others’ success in documentary prompted him to reconsider.
“At the time [of the idea] Michael Moore was new, there was no ‘Borat’ and I was barely known, but now I have two daughters and I see their hair issues, so the idea came back. It’s a funny thing about hair. Li’l Kim and Michell Obama have nothing in common, but if you just say ‘hair,’ they’ll talk for two hours.” The comedian, who hosted the 77th Academy Awards in 2005, went on to say that he thinks this is his funniest movie to date even though it’s only PG-13 and mostly void of his typically sexually charged and expletive-laced stand up.
“This isn’t a topic about anything controversial it’s hair!”

Chris Rock roots of “Good Hair”

Radio shock jock Don Imus learned the hard way that hair can be off-limits when it comes to black women. The negative comments Imus quipped about the collective coifs of a Jersey basketball team induced a national firestorm. Funny man Chris Rock likewise dives into the warm with his documentary, “Good Hair,” scheduled for release this fall. By getting tangled up in a subject that's taboo only in the black community, Rock gets to the root of the multi billion dollar black hair care industry painting a funny, but painful disclosure of the costs of fitting in.

The cast reads like a who’s who:Ice-T, Salt-n-Pepa, Nia Long, Raven Symoné, Maya Angelou. Even Reverend Al Sharpton gets into the mix. Rock credits his daughter, Lola, for the stimulus. The comedian is left speechless when she access him asking why she doesn’t have “good hair.” At a loss to how she reaches that end, Rock sets out to find the answer.Not one shy from controversy, Rock dives right into his project. The result: he manages to wrap humor and disrespect into a remarkably insightful and serious look into the business of black hair. It’s a two year journey that takes him around the globe, with stops in India, Los Angeles, Atlanta and beauty shops across the United States.

Rock avoids being sermonizing or apologetic. Instead he skillfully maneuvers Good Hair into a piece that is as eye opening, sensitive and even shocking as it is funny.Asked at a promotional screening in Tampa if he thought the film is appropriate for young adults, Rock responds with his distinctive chuckle, “I’m Chris Rock. What did you expect?”It’s an answer that’s quite deceiving. Known for his noisy and often expletive-filled stand-up humor, it's true “Good Hair,” is a far cry from Rock’s trademark fare. But beyond the obscenity Rock also gives us “Everybody Hates Chris,” a sit com based on his experiences growing up in New York, which ended its run this year. Rock also voices warm fuzzy characters like Marty, the risk-taking Zebra in Madagascar and the irrepressible guinea pig from Doctor Dolittle. But, Rock says, "Good Hair" may be the best film he’s ever made, He may be right.