NewEnglandFilm.com

There lives amongst us a unique subculture of hairstyle contestants; beauty school students who travel great distances to compete in the execution, competition, look, and desirability of "updos." "Most people are unaware of the subject matter of this film," comments editor, producer, and director of "Hairdo" John Sahula, "we are going to a place that you and I don’t know."

"Hairdo" is a documentary chronicling the journey of a bevy of beauty school students who travel to New York City for a hair stylist competition. Students from the LIBS Beauty School of Malden, Massachusetts form an eclectic, but warm group of women. Most of these women who have never traveled to New York before, voyage to the Big Apple in the hopes of winning recognition from their peers and the professional hairstylist judges.

"Hairdo" was created by three local filmmakers, all of whom have been working in the Boston film community for a decade: Jonathan Sahula, John Capron, and Caroline Toth. Jonathan Sahula, who produced, edited, and directed "Hairdo," was co-editor for last year’s Zack Stratis’ feature length film, "It Could Be Worse," a documentary which was shown at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. Sahula is currently directing a WGBH short episodic documentary about "Probies" in the Boston Fire Department training academy and is finishing a short, puppet-narrative film with filmmaker Jenny McCraken. John Capron, who co-produced "Hairdo," was gaffer/cameraman on another Sundance Film Festival entry "Chuck and Buck." He was also a gaffer on such films as "Seven and a Match" and Ellie Lee’s "Dog Days." Capron is presently directing a documentary about his eccentric landlord entitled "Good Luck to Ya!" Caroline Toth, recently premiered her documentary "Last Day of the Golden Donut" at the Harvard University Film Archive. She is currently working on two more documentaries, one about her father’s brain surgery and the other about Britt Iowa’s Annual Hobo Convention.

Five years ago, John Sahula and John Capron were approached by friend, a model in the regional competition, who thought that this subject matter would make an interesting film. What was created from that was a 12-minute film that was shown locally in the Cambridge area, including the Middle East Club.

This notion was later expanded into the pilot for the WGBX channel 44 episodic documentary series "Story Breaks." John Sahula was pitching ideas to the Executive Producer of "Hairdo," Denise DliAnni, the producer of "Story Breaks." As Sahula states, "It was Denise’s idea for the series, of low budget stuff with independent quality for television." One of the pitches that Sahula made for the "Story Breaks" series was a documentary about beauty school competitions. The first part of this four part episodic series aired two months ago on WGBX during unoccupied time slots. The first episode ran throughout the weeks to "saturate the air with an episodic cliffhanger quality." Each week followed with another segment of the series.

Digital video was also beneficial to the creators of "Hairdo" because it allowed the filmmaker’s to be unobtrusive in many situations. Due to the small size of the digital cameras that were used, the filmmaker’s were able to shoot without people realizing it. "Most people thought we were just filming a home video," states Sahula. This fuss-less nature of digital video also allowed for the students of LIBS Beauty school to be more natural with the filmmakers. As Sahula states, "We were approved on a Wednesday, and were shooting on Thursday." By Friday, the filmmaker’s had boarded a bus and were heading with the school to New York City. The students were completely receptive to the filmmakers, and as Sahula comments, "I think some of it had to do with the equipment we were using."

"Hairdo" will be shown January 17, 2001 with the film "It’s Only A Tattoo," as part of the Director’s Cut Series at the Coolidge Corner Theater. Tickets for this event are $8 for adults, $5 for Coolidge members, and $4 for senior citizens and children.