The Silver Spring Penguin

Photo: From "Bronx Princess" (2008). Courtesy of SilverDocs.

The United States is populated with hyphenated people — Asian-American, African-American, Muslim-American, blah blah blah. The suffix identifies what we are: citizens (or at least residents) of this country. The prefix identifies who we are, the culture with which we most closely relate.

But sometimes, those suffixes and prefixes mash into something unrecognizable. What makes it trickier is when someone else is doing the mashing. And that’s what the SilverDocs shorties program “Culture clash” examines.

“Bronx Princess” (2008)

Rocky (above, center) is a typical American teen — self-absorbed and bratty. But the script is flipped when she travels to Ghana to spend time with her chieftain father, and realizes she’s not in The Bronx anymore. Her commands aren’t answered in a New York minute, she’s chided for not speaking the local language, and her vacation in Ghana just sucks.

Directors Yoni Brook (who directed “A Son’s Sacrifice”) and Musa Syeed are tactful at capturing Rocky’s frustrations and in translating them into a universal language. One doesn’t need to be a hyphenated American to feel for Rocky when she tearfully phones her mother back in The Bronx begging to come home. Anyone who’s been to summer camp or Grandma’s house knows that feeling. It’s a good flick full of humor.

“The First Kid To Learn English From Mexico” (2008)

Photo: From "The First Kid To Learn English From Mexico" (2008). Courtesy of SilverDocs.

Fourth grader Pedro is a mess. He can’t read. He fights his schoolmates and terrorizes neighborhood cats. Most of all, he distrusts his parents, who left him in Mexico to find work in the United States, and then retrieved him five years later. Despite his parents’ best intentions to make a better life for Pedro, the kid lashes out at everything and is a psychopath in the making.

Director Peter Jordan does a beautiful job at capturing Pedro’s anger and vulnerability, and at the end of this 20-minute flick, viewers are left loving and hating the boy. Complex and moving.

“Team Taliban” (2009)

Photo: From "Team Taliban" (2009). Courtesy of SilverDocs.

An Arab-American guy tries to make it big in professional wrestling but gets stuck brawling before small crowds in one-stoplight towns. To invigorate his career, he takes on the persona of an Arab sheik out to do some damage in the ring. It’s an act, he tells himself. But his parents worry about how it reflects on Muslim Americans, and wrestling fans don’t always distinguish the flash from fact.

While the 12-minute flick describes what the wrestler does, director Benjamin Kegan misses on the wrestler’s motives. The premise is intriguing enough, but Kegan only touches the conflict and sails over the resolution. Bummer.

“Me Broni Ba” (2008)

Photo: From "Me Broni Ba" (2008). Courtesy of SilverDocs.

In the slums of Accra, Ghana, the big industry is hair weaving. Stylists spend endless days stringing together hair extensions, and then twisting them into tight braids on customers’ scalps. Meanwhile, customers sit in boredom, pain or both as teams of stylist do their thang.

That shit goes on for the first 15 minutes of this 22-minute film, all with abrupt editing that injects extraneous music or sampled commentary from Oprah Winfrey. When the narration finally begins, it’s about a young Ghanian girl who moves to the United States and marvels at her classmates’ hair.

Akosua Adoma Owusu’s flick is a terrific piece of editing, but it’s a long walk for a short drink of water. There’s way too much pointless footage of the hair-weaving salons, and by the time the movie outlines its objective, one doesn’t really care anymore. This film is art for art’s sake.

The SilverDocs short program “Culture clash” rolls at the AFI Silver Theatre (8633 Colesville Rd) Friday (that’s today) at 7:00 p.m.