Part of Family Programming
The Story Behind “Hair Love”
Description
Join us as we welcome writer/director/producer Matthew A. Cherry and executive producer Frank E. Abney III for a peek behind-the-scenes of their new Sony Pictures Animation short film Hair Love. This exciting event is perfect for families, animation aficionados, aspiring animation professionals, and fans of great storytelling.
The story of Hair Love was born out of seeing a lack of representation in mainstream animated projects, and also wanting to promote hair love amongst young men and women of color. During our interactive multimedia presentation, audience members will be able to view and engage with this heartwarming short film by getting exciting insights into the filmmaking process and having a chance to learn more about the film’s important themes of family and diversity. We hope that the presentation will be particularly inspiring for any of our young audience members who come from a community that is traditionally underrepresented in the eyes of mainstream film and media, and will empower and show them that all stories are important and deserve to be seen and heard.
Be sure to stick around afterwards for a meet-and-greet session, to snag autographs and talk more with our guests.
Hair Love is a heartfelt animated short film that centers around the relationship between an African-American father, his daughter Zuri, and the most daunting task a father could ever come across—doing his daughter’s hair. The short, a passion project from Matthew A. Cherry, made its theatrical debut in North America in August 2019, playing in front of The Angry Birds Movie 2.
Program runtime: 90 minutes
Age recommendation: 6 and up
Chicago native Matthew A. Cherry is a former NFL wide receiver turned filmmaker who played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Panthers, and the Baltimore Ravens. In 2007 he retired and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment, landing work as a production assistant on over 40 commercials and as a director for over 20 music videos. In addition to directing music videos, Cherry directed the short films This Time and Forward. Cherry also writes and directs web series, including the award-winning Almost 30 and Almost Home. Cherry is also a feature filmmaker, and his first feature film The Last Fall made its world premiere at SXSW and received awards at the American Black Film Festival and Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. Cherry’s latest feature, 9 Rides, which premiered at SXSW in 2016, was shot on the iPhone 6s. Most recently, Cherry directed episodes of the TBS series The Last OG, the CBS drama event series The Red Line and the hit new ABC action comedy series Whiskey Cavalier. He was also an executive producer on the Academy Award-nominated BlackKklansman from celebrated director Spike Lee. Cherry works at Jordan Peele’s production company Monkeypaw (Us, Get Out, The Twilight Zone) as a film and television executive.
Frank Abney began at Pixar Animation Studios in 2017 and worked as an animator on Coco and Incredibles 2. He began his career working in video games and television before entering the film industry at DreamWorks Animation and Walt Disney Animation Studios. As an animator, Abney is responsible for breathing life into digital models, creating performances that are believable and sincere, inspiring moviegoers to connect with the characters. Abney was raised in the Bay Area, and received a Bachelor of Arts from the Art Institute of California and a Certificate in Advance Studies in character animation from Animation Mentor. He resides in Antioch, California.