Hair Love is a story about learning something new.
In 2007, after retiring from the NFL, Matthew A. Cherry moved to Los Angeles, and switched gears to begin work as a production assistant. After working on over forty commercials, he developed his skills as a director, transitioning from music videos to his first feature film (2012’s THE LAST FALL).
In 2017, he launched a Kickstarter campaign for an animated short about a black father’s struggle to learn how to style his young daughter’shair. It became the most highly funded short film campaign in the platform’s history and was later released in theaters nationwide.
Join director/writer/producer Matthew A. Cherry, director Everett Downing Jr., and producer Karen Rupert Toliver for a screening of the short and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of HAIR LOVE.
Chicago native Matthew A. Cherry is a former NFL wide receiver turned filmmaker who played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Panthers and the Baltimore Ravens.
Everett Downing is an animator, story artist and director living in the Greater Los Angeles area. Born in Boulder, Colorado and raised in Denver, he studied Film, focusing on computer animation at Columbia College in Chicago. Everett began his career as a story artist at Big Idea Productions before making his break into feature film, animating at Blue Sky Studios on the original "Ice Age."
As executive vice president of creative for Sony Pictures Animation, Karen Toliver is responsible for the creative supervision of a number of upcoming features for the studio, from inception to script, and through production.
