Make sure you view the trailer for this documentary. I have and it’s extremely powerful. I love documentaries and am pleased to see that the Oprah Winfrey Network will add quality documentaries to its lineup. This is definitely going on my Netflix list. ~Affrodite
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 29 /PRNewswire/ — OWN: THE OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK has acquired the rights to FAMILY AFFAIR, an independent feature length documentary film written and produced by Chico David Colvard. FAMILY AFFAIR, an intensely personal documentary that examines Mr. Colvard’s compelling family history, garnered great attention at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where it had its world premiere.
FAMILY AFFAIR is the first film to join OWN’s recently announced Documentary Film Club. The Doc Club was created to spotlight cinematic documentaries that can inspire and entertain, and encourage emerging creative voices to bring their stories to a mainstream television audience on OWN.
“OWN is about real life stories of self-discovery, inspiration and transformation,” said Chief Executive Officer Christina Norman. “FAMILY AFFAIR is exactly that – a multi-layered, raw and provocative family story. I applaud Chico Colvard for his bravery in creating a deeply personal film that shares with us his pain, his anger and ultimately his transformation.”
“I’m honored to have my film be a part of the unique programming OWN will be offering,” said Mr. Colvard. “I believe that my story will resonate with both men and women who are struggling with their past, and give them a new insight to move forward with their future.”
“We are eager to bring this profound and important film to a larger audience,” said Annie Roney, founder and managing director ro*co films international, and curators of the OWN Documentary Film Club. “This documentary will allow viewers to create a community, giving them a platform for discussion and allowing personal growth and change.”
“I am deeply honored that FAMILY AFFAIR is the first acquisition by the OWN Documentary Club,” said Liz Garbus, producer. “Beyond our own personal excitement, OWN’s commitment to best of American documentary filmmaking is a thrilling development for the whole industry.”
A multi-platform experience, the Doc Club on OWN will be an opportunity for viewers to see monthly documentary films on the channel and, in some cases, at nationwide theatrical screening events. On Oprah.com, the OWN community will be able to come together to share reflections, ideas and continue the conversation.
Here’s the trailer for “Family Affair”
About FAMILY AFFAIR
At 10 years old, Chico Colvard shot his older sister in the leg. This seemingly random act detonated a chain reaction that exposed unspeakable realities and shattered his family. Thirty years later, Colvard ruptures veils of secrecy and silence again. As he bravely visits his relatives, what unfolds is a personal film that’s as uncompromising, raw, and cathartic as any in the history of the medium.
Driving the story forward is Colvard’s sensitive probing of a complex dynamic: the way his three sisters survived severe childhood abuse by their father, and as adults, manage to muster loyalty to him. These unforgettable, invincible women paint a picture of their harrowing girlhoods as they resiliently struggle with present-day fallout. The distance time gives them from their trauma yields piercing insights about the legacy of abuse, the nature of forgiveness, and eternal longing for family and love. These truths may be too searing to bear, but they reverberate powerfully within each of us.
FAMILY AFFAIR is written and produced by Chico David Colvard. Dan Cogan and Abigail Disney serve as Executive Producers, Rachel J. Clark as editor, Academy-Award® nominated Liz Garbus as producer, and Miriam Cutler as composer.
A joint venture between Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications, OWN: THE OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK is a multi-platform media company designed to entertain, inform, and inspire people to live their best lives. OWN will debut in more than 70 million homes, on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel. The venture also will include the award-winning digital platform, Oprah.com.
I’ve been posting about the Chris Rock documentary “Good Hair” since I read about it at Sundance back in January of this year. In the past few months the film has been gaining more and more media attention as it opens in theaters. On October 9, 2009 “Good Hair” went out in theaters on a limited release (LA, NY, Chicago, Atlanta, and DC only) but today, October 23, 2009 it opens in more theaters across the country.
There’s a new Facebook application that has launched in celebration of the release of “Good Hair” that allows you to play with different hairstyles using an uploaded image of yourself. I’ve just added the application to my own Facebook page and it’s a lot of fun! To install it, go to http://apps.facebook.com/goodhair/.
Enjoy!
P.S. If you’re local to the Columbus, OH area, Columbus Black has planned an outing tonight at the Arena Grand Theater for interested people to see “Good Hair” at a discounted price. Go to their Facebook Event Page for more details.
Movie Trailer and Summary
When Chris Rocks daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, Daddy, how come I dont have good hair? the bewildered comic committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl’s head! Director Jeff Stilsons camera followed the funnyman, and the result is Good Hair, a wonderfully insightful and entertaining, yet remarkably serious, documentary about African American hair culture. An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, Good Hair visits hair salons and styling battles, scientific laboratories, and Indian temples to explore the way black hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of black people. Celebrities such as Ice-T, Kerry Washington, Nia Long, Paul Mooney, Raven Symoné, Maya Angelou, and Reverend Al Sharpton all candidly offer their stories and observations to Rock while he struggles with the task of figuring out how to respond to his daughters question. What he discovers is that black hair is a big business that doesnt always benefit the black community and little Lolas question might well be bigger than his ability to convince her that the stuff on top of her head is nowhere near as important as what is inside.
Roadside will release the film domestically in the fall, reports Variety. Lionsgate will handle home video and other domestic ancillary rights, while HBO retains pay cable rights.
One of the topics I write about regularly on this blog is black women and their hair, from the prospective of a proponent of natural hair being styled and worn in celebration of its rich range of textures.
Unfortunately, we in the US live with images that long and straight or somewhat wavy hair is status quo. For black women, the issue of hair length is something that makes the biblical tale of Samson and Delilah as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.
Chris Rock has taken on this subject with his documentary entitled “Good Hair” that recently won a Special Jury Prize in the US Documentary Feature Films category at Sundance 2009.
Film description as written on official webpage for Sundance Film Festival…
When Chris Rock’s daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” the bewildered comic committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl’s head! Director Jeff Stilson’s camera followed the funnyman, and the result is Good Hair, a wonderfully insightful and entertaining, yet remarkably serious, documentary about African American hair culture. An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, Good Hair visits hair salons and styling battles, scientific laboratories, and Indian temples to explore the way black hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of black people. Celebrities such as Ice-T, Kerry Washington, Nia Long, Paul Mooney, Raven Symoné, Maya Angelou, and Reverend Al Sharpton all candidly offer their stories and observations to Rock while he struggles with the task of figuring out how to respond to his daughter’s question. What he discovers is that black hair is a big business that doesn’t always benefit the black community and little Lola’s question might well be bigger than his ability to convince her that the stuff on top of her head is nowhere near as important as what is inside.
click HERE to visit Chris Rock’s documentary page on Sundance.org
Excerpt from CBS News…
While loaded with the 43-year-old actor-comedian’s wisecracking humor, “Good Hair” also raises serious questions about identity and equality among black women who feel they need long, straight, silky hair to fit into white society.
“It’s this whole thing about approval. That approval is not simply, `I want white people to love me.’ It’s like, `I need a job. I want to move forward, and if I have a hairstyle that is somewhat intimidating, that’s going to stop me from moving forward,”‘ said Nelson George, executive producer of “Good Hair.”
“A hair documentary, especially for a guy, is a hard sell — no, it’s a weird sell,” says the 43-year-old comedian, who both produced and wrote “Good Hair.” The low-budget documentary traces the growth of the $9 billion industry rooted in the maintenance of African-American hair and its place in ethnic community and culture…
…But for two years Mr. Rock pursued the project with the team behind his critically acclaimed HBO series “The Chris Rock Show.” (HBO owns “Good Hair,” but is open to selling the theatrical rights.) Inspired by what he calls his young daughter’s “hair envy,” or uneasiness with her naturally curly hair, Mr. Rock set out to investigate the nexus of power and politics related to how African-Americans style their hair.
The above Wall Street Journal article contains an excellent interview with Chris Rock on this subject, so I encourage you to read the full article entitled “A Comic’s ‘Good Hair’ Day”
Excerpt from the Black Film Academy…
“It’s really deep and funny… I did a Michael Moore expose on hair,” he tells WENN…Rock and Stilson, (a producer and writer on “The Chris Rock Show”) also traveled to Birmingham, Memphis, and Dallas, to interview and tape some hairdressers as they prepped for the annual Bonner Brothers Hair Show in Atlanta…
I’ll definitely keep my eye out for this documentary. Kudos to Chris Rock for finally deciding to put this project in motion. It’s a subject that seems to never get old, but definitely sits in different spaces depending on the era.
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