Depicting Black girlhood and hair politics through classroom friendships
Responding to Blue Corridor 15 by Dubheasa Lanipekun
It’s always validating to see portrayals of Black British girlhood in all its complexities, contradictions and joys as an ‘adult’. I use that word loosely because, on the rare occasion that I'm blessed with narratives like Blue Corridor 15 – Dubheasa Lanipekun’s candid short film about three Black girls navigating the complex and hostile environment that is secondary school – I'm reminded that my teenage self lives very close to the surface, starving to be seen and to see herself in others.
In less than six minutes, Blue Corridor 15 made the girl in me feel proud and fiercely protective of people like her. It brought me a sense of nostalgia, grief and hope all at once, through a charismatic and colourful trio of characters who felt as real to me as my own little sister. Elizabeth, Tobi and Nana are girls that we’ve all known or been, bright-eyed and fighting to mask vulnerabilities that the world doesn’t afford to Black girls. This is shown through their conversations and the conflicts they face; either at school where they are never seen as innocent by their white caretakers or at home where they either are the caretakers or are denied the agency to express themselves fully by parents more preoccupied with how the world sees them than how they see themselves. We get to see the girls work through this, in their most free and natural state during those few minutes after school where they are finally unburdened and around friends who will at least try to get it.
At different points throughout the film, the girls’ unphased fronts falter, revealing bittersweet moments of tension and tenderness. The strength of their friendship is endearing and, despite their distinct personalities, I could see how deeply bonded they are through their shared realities. Like true sisters, they take on each other's anxieties, switch roles and project onto each other in a way that’s both messy and cathartic. It brought back the confusion of adolescence; what it’s like navigating the minefields of puberty and the British education system when most people are pretending to be something they’re not. The thorniness of those years meant that the best friendships were spaces of release; spaces where we could express how we felt without necessarily saying what we meant.
Like the BAFTA-award winning, coming-of-age film, Rocks, Blue Corridor 15 gives us a glimpse into Gen Z that’s refreshing and relatable – and the young actresses outperformed themselves. I wanted to reach into my laptop and give them each a hug: hyper independent Elizabeth who is suffering but still has the heart to be selfless, Tobi with her wit and rebellious spirit, and Nana and her sharp tongue, the friend who won’t spare your feelings to tell you how it really is because it’s evident that she’s not used to people sparing her own. I wasn’t expecting to feel so close to the girls, or that those years, and their context, emotions and friendships, could be so artfully packed into one scene in a classroom.
It’s also about so much more than just the girls and how they relate with each other. For me, it brought to the forefront how a lot of Black women and girls are hardened by the burdens of having to step up and be providers. I laughed and cringed at the well-intentioned but clumsy discussions around race and gender politics that felt authentic to the setting and I was reminded of the central role that hair plays in Black identity.
We all know the loyalty and trust that Black women put in their hair lady and I've seen first hand, and through productions like The Barber Shop Chronicles, how hair is often a tool for building intimacy and community in Black circles. What I hadn’t considered before Blue Corridor 15, however, is the drama and gate-keeping that also comes with Black hair, especially from the perspective of a mixed-race Black girl, who is trying to connect with her peers through styling hair, but must grapple with the fact that her hair texture and lighter skin gives her a privilege that the girls’ whose hair she’s braiding will never see.
Thalia Gambe did an exceptional job of playing Elizabeth and I could see the hurt in her eyes when Nana used her mixed-race identity to discredit her braiding skills. That being said, it was also clear from Thalia’s portrayal of Elizabeth how things can be lost in translation when dark-skinned Black women try to explain their plights to their lighter-skinned counterparts. I love how, despite her blunt approach, Nana isn’t framed as petty or a villain. When she says, “I'm just asking you to care,” the fervor is palpable in her voice and, though it may be misdirected, her concern over the treatment of 4C hair feels entirely valid and deeply familiar.
Blue Corridor 15 presents conflict that gets overcome without resolution. The ending is satisfyingly sweet but left me with questions that will be playing in my mind for weeks to come. Aside from the obvious argument between Elizabeth and Nana, there are subtle layers of conflict at play in the film that kept me hooked from start to finish. Hierarchies of hair, the different ways in which colourism manifests and the nuances of Black Britishness all come through with great impact. Despite these heavy themes, the dominant sensation that the film left me with was one of warmth.
