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SFFILM Festival

Bad Hair

Directed by Mariana Rondón

Venezuela/Peru | 93

4 May
Sun, May 4, 2014 at 6:15 pm PT

Description

In a Caracas tenement high-rise, Marta (Samantha Castillo) is raising two children alone, their father long gone and her security-job employment recently terminated. Broke and desperate, her frustrations find a focal point: 10-year-old elder son Junior’s (Samuel Lange) curious new determination to straighten his frizzy interracial hair. He wants to look like the people he watches on TV–not actually be a beauty contestant or singer, but simply resemble one. It’s a harmless enough pursuit, one would think. But Marta worries it’s a sign of femininity that underscores her failings as a parent and provider. The resulting conflict between them shouldn’t turn serious—and yet somehow it keeps pressing all the wrong buttons until mother and son may not be able to repair the damage. Without ever spelling anything out, Mariana Rondón’s prize-winning feature addresses potent issues of economic pressure and homophobia within the family unit. She displays a fine understanding of the unspoken tensions that can create a divide—and the occasional words said in anger that can seal it. Bad Hair is a finely acted, deceptively small-scaled drama that subtly works its way toward a big impact. –Dennis Harvey

Director Mariana Rondón

A native of Barquisimeto, Mariana Rondón studied filmmaking in France and Cuba before returning to Venezuela for her first feature At Midnight and a Half, co-directed with Marité Ugás. In addition to work on several TV projects, she subsequently wrote the screenplay for Ugás’s The Kid Who Lies (2010), and wrote/directed Postcards from Leningrad (2007). Bad Hair, her latest, has won top awards at the Havana, San Sebastian, Thessaloniki and other festivals.

Trailer

//player.vimeo.com/video/88104414?autoplay=1

Film Details

Language Spanish

Original Language Title Pelo malo

Year 2013

Runtime 93

Country Venezuela/Peru

Director Mariana Rondón

Producer Marité Ugás

Writer Mariana Rondón

Editor Marité Ugás

Cinematographer Micaela Cajahuaringa

Music Camilo Froideval

Cast Samuel Lange, Samantha Castillo, Nelly Ramos, Beto Benites, Maria Emilia Sulbarán