Macy’s on State Street will celebrate Black History Month with a screening of the Academy Award-winning short film Hair Love followed by a thoughtful discussion with the film’s writer and director, Chicago native Matthew A. Cherry.
The event takes place on February 20 at 6 p.m., Macy’s Narcissus Room, 111 North State St.
Hair Love, which won the Oscar for Best Animated Short on Sunday, is an animated short film about an African American father attempting to do his daughter’s hair for the first time. The short, which made its theatrical debut in August 2019 with Sony Pictures Animation’s The Angry Birds Movie 2, has an accompanying picture book which quickly landed on The New York Times Best Seller list.
After the screening and discussion, guests are invited to stay for a reception where they will enjoy beauty treatments and more. Additional event details will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information, click on this.
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MATTHEW A. CHERRY
HAIR LOVE
Matthew A. Cherry
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. In 2007, Cherry retired and moved to LA to pursue a career in entertainment.
Cherry has directed over 20 music videos for various artists, including Michelle Williams featuring Beyoncé & Kelly Rowland, Snoop Dogg, Chloe X Halle, Tweet, Lalah Hathaway and more. In addition to directing music videos, Cherry directed the short film titled This Time, and recently released a new short film titled Forward, which premiered on Ebony.com.
Matthew also writes & directs web series like the award-winning series Almost 30 and Almost Home.
Cherry is also a feature filmmaker, and his first feature film The Last Fall made its world premiere at SXSW in 2012 and received awards at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) for Best Screenplay and Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAFF) for the HBO Best Feature Film Award.
Cherry’s latest feature film, 9 Rides premiered at SXSW in 2016 in the Narrative Spotlight category. The film, about an Uber driver who receives life-changing news on New Year’s Eve, was shot entirely on an iPhone 6s.
In television, Cherry has directed the TBS series The Last OG with Tracy Morgan and Tiffany Haddish, the CBS drama event series The Red Line executive produced by Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti, the ABC action-comedy series Whiskey Cavalier, which stars Scott Foley & Laura Cohan, CBS’s The Unicorn, and most recently, ABC’s hit series Black-ish.
Cherry also served as an executive producer on the Academy Award-nominated film BlackKklansman from Spike Lee while working as a film executive at Jordan Peele’s production company, Monkeypaw Productions.
Details
Hair Love
Thursday, February 20, 2020 – 6 p.m.
Macy’s State Street – 111 N State St, Chicago,
7th Floor, Narcissus Room
To RSVP, click here.
Pictured, top: Matthew A. Cherry
