Girl Model
Directed by David Redman and Ashley Sabin
2011
When we meet her, Nadya slinks toward the camera in a bikini. She’s skinny. This doesn’t come as a shock given that she’s auditioning for a modeling contract, but what does shock is the discovery she’s only thirteen. We’re going to follow her as she embarks on her modeling career in Japan. The first shots of this immensely sad documentary are initially disorienting, making you wonder what the semi-wilderness of Siberia has to do with the catwalk. Sadly, the relevance of isolation and a lack of much else becomes painfully apparent. At one point, we see a creepy kiddie facsimile of a western catwalk show. It seems harmless fun taken at face value, but within the context of this film represents a fantasised world of glamour and opportunity that local families are too eager to believe. Nadya’s grandmother just wants her to have freedom; her dad is planning a new house for the family, which he’ll build with the money she earns.
I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by telling you this is overly optimistic. Nadya’s contract with Switch Models promises her $8000 and at least two paid jobs when she gets to Tokyo. Unfortunately the contract has a clause stating it can be changed on a daily basis (always something to look out for), and instead of embarking on a glittering career, Nadya is taken to a string of casting calls, essentially an excuse to photograph her without payment and…gets nowhere.
While one strand of the film follows Nadya as she has her dreams trashed in Tokyo, another focuses on the figure of Ashley, an ex-model who now works as a talent scout. She is the one responsible for selecting the girls that have the right look for whichever client she is working for, and putting them in touch with each other. Ashley is a fascinating character, and arguably the one who really holds the viewer’s attention. She is almost a tragic figure; a villain who seems to be on the cusp of redemption, but who doesn’t quite manage it. You can see it the moment the camera fixes on her; she just looks edgy and uncomfortable. As we spend more time with her, we find she is completely aware of the exploitative, dishonest nature of her business, and one of the driving forces of the film (the other being a sincere desire to see Nadya get home OK) is the tension in waiting to see if she will act on her disillusionment. When she has a meeting with a flagrantly sinister associate, where she enquires about how he ensures the safety of his girls once they have reached Tokyo, there’s an ocean of skepticism behind her questions; unsurprising, given his answer involves scaring them into timidity by showing them autopsies. This film is a depressing, miserable trudge with no resolution, but I don’t mean that as a criticism.
Girl Model is not a discursive work, which works both in and against its favour. On the one hand, documentary is at its most powerful and truthful when there is a minimum of interference, and in this case the subject matter is so naturally abhorrent that all directors David Redmon and Ashley Sabin need to do is set the camera rolling and let the industry condemn itself, through a maelstrom of bullshitting and self-deception. Sometimes you can’t believe just how self-incriminating these people are: early on we hear an agent relating how a “pre-pubescent look” is popular in the Japanese market, apparently oblivious to just how questionable this sounds. Later we see a DVD, containing videos of casting shoots, with the simple, red-marker title 'Russian Teens'. Right... At its best, this hands-off approach can lead to scenes such as the one where Ashley visits two of her models in Tokyo, both of whom are now slightly disillusioned and suspicious. It might be one of the most awkward scenes ever filmed; the sense of betrayal and resentment all the more present for the stilted conversation.
At the same time the unstructured approach causes certain dissipation in the documentary’s power, due to an understandable desire to fit in anything interesting that makes itself available. The contemporary footage is interspersed with Ashley’s personal videos of when she was starting as a model in Japan, but it’s not entirely clear what they’re there for. Ashley deserves praise for being so open with the filmmakers, but it seems as if her videos are meant to provoke an element of sympathy, and an understanding of her own debilitating experiences as a model. Unfortunately, you can’t ignore the fact that:
a) she was eighteen, rather than thirteen
b) she has apparently made money instead of being sent home in debt
c) her videos don’t express the same fear and desperation expressed by Nadya, merely boredom and self-pity.
This means that while they should be crystallising the information in the main body of the documentary, they only interrupt it. Similarly, a non-sequitur sequence toward the end sees Ashley undergo surgery to remove a sebaceous cyst from her womb. The bizarre lump of tissue and blond hair she gives "birth" to must have been included as some symbol regarding her career. I couldn’t decide whether I thought it was too hysterical or too perfect. I can't blame the filmmakers for including something so macabre-ly representative, either way.
Most importantly, though, the loose structure makes for a disparity between the film’s focus and what it is implied we should take from it. In terms of condemning the specific part of the model trade we are shown, this piece is an incontrovertible success; but material on the film’s website suggests we are meant to take it as representative of the entire industry. I’m not denying this could be the case, but without more input on behalf of the filmmakers, without providing information rather than allowing events to show themselves, there is nothing that really supports this. It remains a compelling account, but one that is quite limited in its application, never transcending its coverage of this specific situation to convince us that this is the reality of the fashion industry. Tom