In many families across the world, fathers play a key role in raising children and running the household. However, in films it’s much more common to see portrayals of mothers raising their children, cooking and cleaning the house, driving the kids to and from school and activities, etc. while all we see of the father is when he walks in at the end of the day and asks what’s for dinner. As we head into the 21st century and the art of filmmaking begins to move into a more modern age, fatherly relationships have begun to get the spotlight a little more. In the film ‘Hair Love’, we see a loving relationship between a father and a daughter that breaks the stereotypical relationship we expect to see in film and literature.

In the short film ‘Hair Love’, a little girl is trying to do her hair based on a video tutorial but keeps failing. We know this is an important day for her but it isn’t completely clear why. When the dad comes into her room, he tries to tell her they’re running late but she insists on the necessity of having her hair done. (2:13)  Here is where the film breaks off from a story that we as viewers might be used to. Oftentimes in film and literature, fathers are portrayed as not listening to their children, especially when they’re running late for something. More often, the focus is placed on the relationship between a mother and her daughter. The mom is the one who is more understanding and would typically be the one to be a little bit late just to make sure her kid is happy. While the relationship between the mom and the daughter is brought up in the film and plays an important role in the story (shown at 0:07, 1:26, and 5:15), the relationship between the daughter and her father is the one that we are able to watch grow throughout the film. By choosing to have the father be late to their appointment, the writers of ‘Hair Love’ broke the stereotype of fathers in films not being willing to do the little things for their children. They also broke the stereotype of black fathers not being around for their children. By having a black father make the decision to stop what he’s doing and step out of his comfort zone to help his daughter be happy, the writers of ‘Hair Love’ broke a number of stereotypes that up until recently have been found in a majority of films.

In a “nuclear family”, the role of a father is based around working to provide the income for the family while the role of a mother is based around keeping the house and raising children. Because of this, bonds between a child and their father, who isn’t typically expected to be around their child for major parts of the day, are less represented in literature than a bond between a child and their mother who would be expected to spend much of their day with their children. As films begin to adjust to the more modern ideas of the 21st century, the relationships presented in them have begun to shift. We have begun to see more strong father figures in films and TV shows, such as Gomez Addams in ‘The Addams Family’, Mr. Ping in ‘Kung Fu Panda’, and Scott Calvin in ‘The Santa Clause’, to name just a few. These films show fathers taking an active role in raising their children, breaking away from the stereotypes of the past. The short film ‘Hair Love’ shows this kind of relationship as well. You can tell the father is probably not used to caring for his daughter in this way – although that is in no way saying he doesn’t care for his daughter in other ways. However, he is forced to step out of his comfort zone in order to take care of her when her mother is in the hospital and is unable to. From some standpoints, this film is more about the father stepping out of his normal role in the family and filling the role his wife is unable to at the moment, rather than the little girl getting ready to see her mother again.

Although fathers are a large part of what we think of when we think of a stereotypical family, in the past they have been a much smaller part of films compared to mothers. However, as we head into the 21st century and the art of filmmaking begins to move into a more modern age, fatherly relationships have begun to gain more focus in films and literature. In the short film ‘Hair Love’, we see an example of this when a father is forced to step out of his comfort zone and fill a role his wife would normally do in taking care of their daughter. Even though doing a child’s hair seems like a normal part of being a parent, it is clearly a big step forward in the relationship between this father and daughter, holding a key element of the short film. In 2020, ‘Hair Love’ won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, helping demonstrate the reach and impact this film and its ideas had on audiences nation- and world-wide.