Me Broni Ba (Akosua Adoma Owusu, 2009)

Part documentary, part non-narrative pseudo-avant garde bit of filmmaking about pressures put on African women about their hair. The problem I've found with most avant garde filmmaking I've seen is that it always feels lazy. Like the thing many of these so-called avant garde filmmakers find most compelling about it is the "freedom" from the constrictions of typical plot and narrative. But in my eyes it seems that most of what this freedom allows for is indulgence and half-formed or barely there ideas, hiding under a blanket of obtuseness and detachment in order to prevent criticism. Me Broni Ba appears to have some interesting ideas about social pressures of aesthetics as they relate to women of color (especially in Africa, obviously), but these ideas are presented in such an oblique, convoluted package as to become nearly useless due to their desire to remain "artful" and inaccessible. Occasionally offers some compelling images, and I would never exactly try to talk someone out of seeing it -- it's just disappointing given what it feels as though it could've been.