"My Nappy Roots" is the flagship production for Art Ventures Funding.

My Nappy ROOTS: A Journey Through Black Hair-itage, a stylistic, new, feature length documentary, places black hair under a magnifying glass and examines more closely the social and cultural roots of African-Americans. The film illuminates the significance and pride of African hair traditions prior to the first arrival of enslaved Africans to America, where the broader struggle of Black people began. This cultural and social struggle created the rise of the first great black entrepreneurs and the billion-dollar ethnic hair care industry that exists today.

Starting with the first attempts of black hair styling, My Nappy ROOTS displays an array of various techniques and styles including the conk and press and curl, the afro, the jheri curl, and dreadlocks. Each distinctive style marks a distinctive time in American history, politics, and African American
culture. Exploring beyond the surface, My Nappy ROOTS delves internally into the mindset that created the never-ending debate of “good hair vs. bad hair” and the role media plays as the instigator. From the start of the film, an underlying theme of overcoming obstacles develops into an inspiring story of success and business that does not end. Instead, it raises the question of “where do we go from here?”

My Nappy ROOTS tells its story largely through the voices of celebrities, historians, authors, journalists, comedians, hair stylists and business leaders who shape the black hair care industry. Filmmakers Regina Kimbell and Jay Bluemke assemble an amazing line-up of celebrities (Kim Fields,
Patti LaBelle, Vivica A. Fox, Malcolm-Jamal Warner to name a few), historians, authors, journalists, comedians, skilled hair stylists and barbers, industry business icons, and the ordinary client to provide historical, professional, and personal accounts on their Black hair journey. The black hair
industry, which is always passionate, sometimes outrageous, and often humorous, can be considered the liberation of Blacks in the United States. This liberation is not only captured on film but experienced from beginning to end with

My Nappy ROOTS:

A Journey Through Black

Hair-itage.

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