Beard Club

Synopsis

One woman’s journey into the territory of camaraderie and rebellion found in beards and mustaches, uncovering unexpected realizations about the social politics of facial hair.

Beard Club examines the social politics of facial hair.

In Beard Club, my chance encounter with some extreme beard competitors prompts a five-year journey to look into the deeper power dynamics of how gender, class, and race are linked to facial hair.  Along the way I discover a diverse set of people from around the world who passionately tell their beard stories, leading to unexpected realizations about gender and identity.

 

As a filmmaker, my work focuses on issues of cultural norms and the effects of living in a multi-cultural society.  Having lived and studied abroad, studying the Japanese language in Japan and receiving a Masters in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, I work to bring my sense of cultural inquiry to the work I produce. 

In winter 2003 I had set out to make a film about small town economies in rural California as an attempt to bridge my knowledge of development economics, and my new life as a filmmaker living in California. Along the way I ran into a busload of German, World Beard and Mustache competitors.  This event changed my trajectory.  I found that talking to men about their motivations for growing or not growing facial hair led to a deeper conversation concerning their underlying cares and motivations towards identity, family, culture, and community.  At the same time I realized that many men and women are quite anti-beard.

Through the lens of what is acceptable in facial hair fashion, I turned my eye on what it means to have facial hair in America.  Do we really have the freedom to be ourselves?  What is the price of diverging from the norm?  What does one gain?  How do people coming from countries facing war and poverty navigate a culture that doesn’t accept the way they look? There is a long history that ties facial hair to allegiance, from the Pharaohs, though Peter the Great, to the US Government.  Throughout history, leaders have influenced men’s decision to shave or not to shave - exerting their control over this simple act.  In America, we are free to define our identity, yet cultural norms still have a strong role in our private decisions.

 

Budget:

$ 10,000.00

Project's Financial Needs

Funds will be used for finishing the film.  Beard Club now runs 62 minutes.  

To complete the film we need to find funds for the following items:

- original music composition

- music licensing

- title animation

- sound mix

- color correction

- archival rights for film festivals

- film festival application fees.

 

Other financial Support

Beard Club has raised money through generous donations of time and money from individuals and film professionals as well as donations from the following organizations:

-   Fleishhacker Foundation

-   Pacific Pioneer Fund 

 

Current stage of production

Post-Production

Estimated Completion Date

09/15/2010

Production Personnel

Director/Producer

Laura J. Lukitsch's multi-cultural background infuses a deep sense of cultural inquiry into her work. Once an economics student in India, she has worked as filmmaker with artistic, public television and corporate clients from Silicon Valley to Massachusetts, Johannesburg, and beyond. Beard Club, a film about the social politics of facial hair, is Laura’s first feature-length documentary. 

Off-line Finishing Editor

Jeff Springer was born in a virtually abandoned town in the California desert, raised in Hawaii, and educated at USC Film School. After living for a winter in Russia, he returned to Los Angeles to begin directing music videos, shorts, and editing for UPN, Fox, Geffen Records, and Lucasfilm. Burned out and hung over, he eventually fled to San Francisco to start work on Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea (2004).  After weeks in the desert and a couple of burnt cameras, the film went on to win 33 awards for Best Documentary and premiered on the Sundance Channel. 

Animator

Chelsea Walton is an animator and editor located in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a film student at the University of Iowa, she discovered animation as a means to combine her interests in drawing, photography and painting.  Since 2004, after completing an MFA in Cinema at San Francisco State University she has worked independently as an animator and editor.  Her work has screened internationally on big screens, computer screens, living room screens and driveway screens. 

Animation Character Artist

Dave Bohn specializes in editorial caricature and portrait illustration of political and other well-known personalities. He uses watercolors and gouache, aiming to capture the likeness with humor and wit. In additional to illustrations, Dave works on storyboards for television commercials (Restoration Hardware) and film (Saltwater, Beard Club).