In a little under 7 minutes, the 2019 animated short film “Hair Love” delivered a sweet, funny, touching and memorable story about a little girl who tries to style her hair with the help of a tutorial video made by her stylist mother, and the somewhat overwhelmed but caring and attentive father who helps his daughter while the mother is in the hospital and is getting chemotherapy treatment. The last we see of this family they’re leaving the hospital. Mom is coming home.
Written and co-produced by Chicago filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry and co-directed by Everett Downing Jr., and Bruce W. Smith, “Hair Love” was attached to theatrical screenings of “The Angry Birds Movie 2” and later “Little Women,” won best animated short film at the 92nd annual Academy Awards and was adapted into a best-selling children’s book written by Cherry and illustrated by Vashti Harrison. That’s heady stuff for an animated short — and it was all well-deserved.
