University Honors

Do You Like My Face is a short film centered around the experience of a young artist named Dina. As a Black/ Nigerian American woman, Dina finds herself in an art class focused on accentuating Eurocentric beauty standards, excluding anyone who looks different. This, of course, rubs Dina the wrong way, and she sets out to confront her professor regarding the matter of representation in the class. After being shot down numerous times, Dina decides to take matters into her own hands and becomes her own model in order to feel beautiful. As the film progresses, we see that the drawing instructor, who had previously been so oppositional to the idea of diversity, had been another version of Dina all along. She was a version of Dina that had let the world affect how she viewed her identity and allowed it to limit her art. Within the film, two important things are being addressed: the first is a commentary on beauty standards in the film, TV, and media industry; the second is about identity, self-love, standing up for yourself, and freeing yourself to be able to express who you are, create, and inspire.