a review of The Barber of Little Rock

An encouraging if not especially detailed look at how a Black barber college owner in Little Rock, AR parlayed his business acumen into helping build a community economic hub in Little Rock, providing microloans and other necessary financial services for people (mostly, but not entirely people of color) cut off from the benefits of banking, due to the systemic inequalities that still exist in present-day America. I sort of wish this one was a feature-length doc, or was connected to a whole book so I could read more about the US Treasury-backed programs that made this all possible. I also wish the movie had delved further into the forces actively pushing back on these efforts, and into how well they might stand up to assault from being defunded by a less-friendly federal government.