Film. KBELA. Afro-Brazilian Women Transition To Natural Hair and Confront Beauty Standards in This Artistic Short Film.

KBELA film


Created by Brazilian filmmaker Yasmin Thayná, KBELA is a short film that takes viewers on an artistic journey featuring black Brazilian women and their transition to natural hair.

Shot in Rio, KBELA employs music, dance, and performance art. The film stars ten Afro-Brazilian actresses, including Maria Clara Araújo a black trans woman, all of whom were cast via Facebook. KBELA started out as a play, an adaption of the story MC K-Bela, and was performed in indie theaters in Rio. Thayná conducted two shoots in order to create the final short film version.

KBELA is not just about hair it’s also about representation. Similar to the United States, black Brazilian women are severely underrepresented in the country’s media. As Black Women of Brazil writes,

A cara do cinema nacional: perfil de gênero e cor dos atores, diretores e roteiristas dos filmes brasileiros (2002-2012) (The face of national cinema: profile of gender and color of the actors, directors and writers of Brazilian films (2002-2012) conducted by the Grupo de Estudos Multidisciplinares da Ação Afirmativa (GEMAA or Multidisciplinary Study Group of Affirmative Action)of the State University of Rio de Janeiro ( UERJ) pointed out that in the last ten years, black women accounted for only 4.4% of the cast of main national feature-length films. The study also reveals that, in the same period, women occupied only 14% of management positions and 26% wrote scripts, none of which were black women.

KBELA film

The film’s performance confronts beauty standards by depicting the process of transitioning to natural hair, as the process of “transitioning into a black woman.” In a teaser for KBELA we see one of the film’s performers engaging in a “whitening process” prior to her transition.


KBELA and filmmaker Yasmin Thayná are part of a growing movement of Afro-Brazilian filmmakers and films telling the stories of black Brazilians. These films have earned accolades abroad at various film festivals. No word yet on international release dates for the film, but we’ll keep you posted.