Have you ever dreamed of having long, beautiful hair like one of the top Bollywood film stars? Then where better to go than India? India is a major player in the growing market for human hair as used in high-priced hair extensions, and filmmakers Raffaele Brunetti and Marco Leopardi offer a look at the strange path from an Indian girl's head to that of a woman in an upscale beauty salon in the documentary Hair India. A young girl from West Bengal with long hair cuts her locks and donates the hair to her local temple; from there, it's sorted by a handful of neighborhood workers and sold to an Italian firm, who then turns it into hair extensions. But why are so many women willing to sacrifice their hair for a little? Why are other women willing to pay so much for the same hair? And is this the point where vanity and global economics most closely meet? Hair India was an official selection at Toronto's 2009 Hot Docs Film Festival.
by Mark Deming
synopsis
