17 – 27 July 2025

HAIR CARE

Fatima Wardy |
Côte d’Ivoire |
2023 |
12Min |
English, French
16 L V
An Ivorian American woman’s day begins ordinarily enough, she visits a hair salon in Abidjan to have her hair braided. The conviviality and camaraderie of the hair salon are warm and inviting. With her hair only partially braided, her hair stylist disappears without a trace. The intrepid young woman sets out on a quest to find her. Her adventure takes her through a magical rendition of the metropolis to find her stylist. She traverses an animated Côte d’Ivoire and braves several dangerous encounters to track her down. When her hair is finally braided, she wonders where exactly she has been.
Fatima Wardy
Mary-Elizabeth Esquibel, Fatima Wardy
Joey Hunt
Karl-Mary Akre
Se’An Boatner, Fynta Sidime, Nelson Nwachukwu

Screenings

25 July 17:00 Suncoast 7
28 July 14:00 Gateway 9

Student Package 4

10-12 PG
HAIR CARE

Fatima Wardy

Fatima Wardy is a Sudanese and British filmmaker who works across fiction and non-fiction mediums examining the nature of diasporic African existence, with a focus on how displacement from home breeds connection and dis-connection in the daily lives of immigrants. She takes inspiration from the oral storytelling traditions of her Nubian grandparents and is particularly passionate about imaging Black Muslim identity and modern Sudanese life. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Film and Media Production at the University of Texas at Austin. White Musk her thesis film for this program will be developed through the Short Form Station lab at the Berlinale Talents Summit. In 2023, the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) awarded her a development grant for her feature documentary The Love Marriage. This personal archive-based film charts the history of modern Sudan through the lens of her parent’s courtship on the eve of Omar al-Bashir’s military coup in 1989.