From Street Hustling to Cannes – Actress Nydia Simone on a Natural Hair Documentary Mission

Film director/actor Mario Van Peebles is the first celebrity to donate to actress Nydia Simone's Cannes Film Festival trip, on the street during her IndieGoGo campaign.Less than 10 months ago, New York City native Nydia Simone moved to Los Angeles with one bag, a carry-on and her sights set on becoming a television actress for the Nickelodeon or Disney channel. This aspiring Hollywood player soon leaped at an opportunity that would help her make a documentary film about a topic she and many ladies can relate to – natural hair.

Upon acceptance into a filmmaking program operated by The Creative Mind Group, Simone collected over $2,400 in donations from strangers (including myself) to travel to France and pitch her movie to potential investors at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

Before heading to the festivities a few weeks ago, Simone chatted with me about her experiences so far and what she aims to bring back from Cannes.

Madlab Post: How would you describe your Natural Hair Documentary and its working title?

Nydia Simone: “Natural: Documenting the World of Natural Hair Evolution,” which completely describes my documentary because it’s all about the worldwide change and movement of the natural hair revolution.

I feel like it was so present but the media wasn’t discussing it and still, today, everyone knows about it but nobody talks about it. I was working on Broadway for the producers of “A Streetcar named Desire” when Nicole Ari Parker, Blair Underwood and Wood Harris were the lead stars. During an interview, Parker mentioned going natural because of her daughter – ‘I don’t want my daughter to look at me and feel like her hair isn’t beautiful because of what I’m doing to my hair’ and I was like ‘oh my gosh, that’s so different from why I went natural and not even close to why I did it;’ everyone has a story.

l-r: Nydia Simone with "Soul Food" & "New Jack City" actress and naturalista Vanessa Williams, at the 2014 Pan African Film FestivalMy documentary is going to feature stories of natural hair while documenting what has come from that movement – people who now have [natural hair] product lines, people who became famous such as hair gurus; I also want to talk about what it means to be natural. When you’re a kid, you really don’t have that many qualms about your hair – your mom does your hair. It’s when you’re an adult that you’re like “it has to be this way” and “no, it’s horrible, I have to figure it out.” I feel like most black women, not all, know how to do their children’s hair -- but lot of them don’t.

We’re from the East Coast, where people know how to do their hair. These West Coast people are a different story, because I see kids looking crazy. I want to go to Sweden, Paris, Brazil and different salons and talk to naturals all over the world, not just in America. I want a big portion [of the documentary] to be in New York. I want to go to L.A. as well, but definitely New York because there is a pride – you don’t just have pride in being black, there’s a pride in your hair, in a way that L.A. is not.

How much progress have you made on this Documentary so far and what will the securing of investment money mean for the project?

I have a treatment already done. Since I don’t have the awesome footage I shot, including with a celebrity hairstylist, I’m starting from square one. It’s so sad because I had a cinematographer but he’s not returning any of my calls. So, I have to create a sizzle real for my documentary, literally in like two days! I’m going to do it. I thought I had a lot and I guess that’s what happens when you get favors from people.

You have to work right with people – confirmations, etc. so that you can both be on the same page rather than communicating via informal text messages, which has led to no-shows more than once. I’m going to make a sizzle real because God got me this far and I’m going to frickin’ France with something! Video is so important. I’m asking for complete funding of $65,000 (up to $150,000 if possible) for my film. I’ll be able to hire everybody I need to hire, attract and secure talent while being able to live my life as a filmmaker without worrying about rent and not having money.

I’ll be able to go hard 100% on this film.

If you do something at 100%, you will do it well. I just learned that from fundraising. I was out there every day getting money to go to Cannes. I’m very excited and among the people I want to interview are Viola Davis and Whoopi Goldberg, which is a big deal for me because she never compromised – she’s been Whoopi! Her hair has been her hair and she doesn’t change. She’s been extremely successful being herself and I think it’s important to talk about it and I would really like to hear what she has to say about natural hair and how it’s affected her career, because I know it’s affected her career; and people like Tracy Ellis Ross, who has the more widely accepted natural hair but at the end of the day, it’s still black hair.

*Stay tuned for MORE with actress/producer Nydia Simone, including:

• The guerilla tactics that led to her being mistaken for a homeless person in Beverly Hills
• How she plans to balance this Natural Hair documentary with her work duties on a Saturday Morning TV show coming to FOX

Now tell me....

What influences YOUR decision on choosing the hairstyles that you wear?

How much time do YOU spend on the maintenance and styling of YOUR hair?

Of all the actors/actresses in the movie industry, whose hair do YOU favorite (or envy) most?

 *Photo(s) credit: Nydia Simone

Monday Movie Meme – A Military Memorial

The theme for this week’s Monday Movie Meme is dedicated to the deceased servicemen (and women) of the United States of America: It’s Memorial Day. Share on your blog or in the comments section, the first movie(s) that come to your mind when you think of Memorial Day.

Here are my selections for this week’s Memorial Day theme.

We Were Soldiers

Of all the most heart wrenching scenes I remember from this movie starring Mel Gibson, the one where an Army wife gets that dreadful visit at her front door but despite the obvious, she refuses to accept that her husband is not coming back home – and is indeed another casualty of the Vietnam War – is the first scene that comes to mind when thinking about Memorial Day.

Pearl Harbor

Among the many deaths that occur during this war movie, starring Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnet, is that of an Army pilot.

Courage Under Fire

Cover-ups and skeletons in the closet are revealed during an investigation on whether or not a female Army Captain who died in The Gulf War is worthy of a Medal of Honor, in this dramatic thriller starring Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington.

When Memorial Day fell on a Monday in 2012, the Movie Meme focused on characters that were wounded while working in the armed forces. At that time, I didn’t fully understand the differences between Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day. Here’s hoping that the nature of this week’s Monday Movie Meme theme honors fallen soldiers properly in 2014!

Can YOU name any movie(s) that come to YOUR mind when thinking of Memorial Day?

Comedy 'Breakthrough Weekend' Offers a Guide to Happiness #IndieFilm

(l-r): Damien Bosco as Sal and Sean Bempong as Yevgeny filming a scene in BREAKTHROUGH WEEKEND.A private investigator named Sal takes an apprentice named Yevgeny under his wing while helping clients resolve their issues in the comedy “Breakthrough Weekend” directed by Brooklyn filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake. Sal’s personalized approach is somewhat like a caretaker and much different from how I generally perceive private investigators to behave when working with clients. It is a method that seems to work for him and might even be recession-proof, given his ability to command a seven figure income for these services.

While watching the movie, I started wondering if this guy Sal is actually private investigator -- or is he a therapist or a gangster? It's like "Iyanla Fix My Life," except the characters and discoveries in “Breakthrough Weekend” are interesting enough – and in some cases bizarre enough -- that I wanted to know how the story was going to play out. Between cheating, dream manifestations, incest and wizardry, Yevgeny searches for the keys to improving his life, in pursuit of becoming happier and less depressed. This protege seems to find some insight on how to be happy while working on cases with Sal; perhaps it's the realization that there are way more messed up people in the world than we would think.

The overall vibe I get from this movie is a message that no matter how much you think you suck at life, there are many other people living in more undesirable circumstances. Although we’re not the only ones who are fucked up, the good news is that at least we know we have a problem, whereas many other folks don't even realize that they are screwed up themselves. Now, THAT’S depressing! The fortunate thing is the power is in each person’s hands to change his or her own situation, no matter how low one’s happiness level falls or how high it rises.

So tell me…

What's YOUR happiness level?

COMING JUNE 2014:

The U.S. Theatrical Premiere of Breakthrough Weekend is playing June 12^th during the inaugural Breakthrough Festival NYC at Anthology Archives (32 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10003), launching this movie’s 1-week run that concludes on June 18^th! Contact Wild Diner Media for showtimes and more details.