Parity Pipeline

Parity Pipeline

Inside the Beauty Bubble

Directed by Cheri Gaulke and Cheryl Bookout

INSIDE THE BEAUTY BUBBLE takes you into a pastel dreamland of 3,000 vintage beauty artifacts as you follow "America's hairstorian," stylist, collector, artist, and musician Jeff Hafler, as he struggles to keep his roadside attraction afloat during a year that changes his life and the lives of his husband and son.

  • ABOUT
  • BIO
  • SCREENINGS
  • AWARDS
  • CREDITS
  • GALLERY

Genre

Synopsis

INSIDE THE BEAUTY BUBBLE is a short documentary film about an eccentric and renowned collector of hair artifacts fighting to keep his desert dreams alive. The Beauty Bubble Salon & Museum in Joshua Tree is the magical and kitsch-filled brainchild of Jeff Hafler. The film covers a year in the life of Jeff and his roadside attraction as they face lockdowns, protests and massive societal change. It is a film about family, fabulousness and folk art, a film that reminds us it’s sometimes the strong people on the margins that hold a community together.

Bio

Cheri Gaulke is a pioneer in the feminist art movement in Los Angeles affiliated with the Woman’s Building working in film and visual art. Her award-winning films have screened in film festivals internationally. Gaulke’s work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the Museum of Contemporary Art (LA), in a Smithsonian-touring exhibition, and in settings all over the world including buses, churches, and prehistoric temples. In her almost 50-year career, Gaulke has created 30 media works including documentaries, experimental personal narratives, and video installations. Gaulke has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, City of Los Angeles, California Community Foundation, and California Humanities. Recent films include GLORIA’S CALL about women artists of surrealism (Best Documentary at Ann Arbor Film Festival), MISS ALMA THOMAS: A LIFE IN COLOR about an under-recognized African-American artist (traveling with a museum retrospective exhibition), INSIDE THE BEAUTY BUBBLE about the owner of a roadside attraction in Joshua Tree California (numerous audience and other festival awards), and the recently completed OLD GIRL IN A TUTU: SUSAN RENNIE DISRUPTS ART HISTORY about a queer, octogenarian artist. She is in post-production on her first feature documentary, ACTING LIKE WOMEN, about feminist performance art in 1970s-80s Los Angeles https://actinglikewomen.com/.

Screening History

Premiere - American Documentary and Animation Film Festival 2022

Official Selection - Frameline 2022

Official Selection - Nevada City Film Festival 2022

Official Selection - Dances with Films 2022

Official Selection - Cleveland International Film Festival 2023

Awards History

Heart of Gold Award - Nevada City Film Festival 2022

Audience Award - San Luis Obispo Film Festival 2022

Audience Award - Dances with Films 2022

Credits

Subject - Jeff Hafler

Cinematographer - Nick Lieberman

Editor - Susan Metzger

Original Music - Jeff Hafler

Animation - C. Lily Ericsson