11th BFI International Film Festival

The 11th BFI International Film Festival- the UK's largest Black world cinema event- kicks off today at the BFI Southbank venue for the second year running.

The festival opens with the award-winning documentary Good Hair-produced and narrated by US comedy star Chris Rock- where he attempts to answer his 4-year-old daughter -How come I don't have good hair?-dilemma.

By good hair she means long, straight and shiny hair as opposed to her natural curly African and apparently impossible to manage hair.

Rock then embarks on a mission across hair salons all over America in an attempt to answer his daughter's question and find out why out why Afro-American women spend more than $ 9 billion a year in weaves, extensions and wigs chasing after good hair.

A provocative documentary that will surely spark controversy with comments such as "It's [grooming] kinda like a torture session", "sex with a weave is a little awkward" or a scene where a women asks herself "so my nappy hair isn't worth anything?".

This celebration of black cinema continues with titles such as Dennis Dortch's A Good Day to be Black and Sexy or Stascha Bader's study on Jamaican society and politics in Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae.

For further information, click here.



Chris Rock on Good Hair: