The most influential figure in the fashion industry you might not have heard off

The documentary opens with many influential fashion and entertainment industry figures praising Bethann. From Tracee Ellis Ross to Zendaya and Whoopi Goldberg to Fran Liebowitz, they all give short testimonials about what this fashion trailblazer meant to them. We see more comprehensive interviews with people such as Iman, Campbell and Beckford to get to know even more about Bethann. Her teenage years were rough due to the strict upbringing by her father, but Bethann isn’t afraid to admit that that is what makes her so determined.

After attending FIT and NYU, she became a saleswoman in the clothes district, and it didn’t take long before she was noticed by the big fashion names, even if it was unintentional. Black designer Willi Smith was the first one to give Bethann a model job, and her androgynous appearance, expressive look and outgoing personality made Bethann a popular model in the ‘70s as she walked alongside the likes of Pat Cleveland, Beverly Johnson and Iman.

She realizes that while some black women and people of colour are walking the runway, the % could and should increase even more. She wants to tackle that racism and lack of representation from the inside, so she decides to become a model and booking agent. In 1984, she launched the Bethann Management Agency. Her agency has received worldwide fame for discovering the most dynamic and diverse models from different backgrounds, including Kimora Lee Simmons and Veronica Webb.

Her impact became even more significant when she co-founded The Black Girls Coalition with Iman in 1988 to support African American models in the fashion industry. Bethann’s influence on the industry can’t be underestimated, and when she sees that it is all going in the right direction and that the people around her can take over the baton, she retires to Mexico to decide what she wants next in life. However, when the white homogeneity and “heroin chic” take the industry by storm, she’s forced out of ‘retirement’ with a bombshell press conference…

The traditional but effective way of documentary-making

Invisible Beauty is being told in the usual straightforward and traditional way. We see testimonials from the biggest people in the fashion world and Bethann’s son Kadeem. Of course, there’s Bethann, who gives us a very up-close look into her personal and professional life. The interviews are accompanied by runway show footage, press conferences and pictures from her childhood. We gain more insights into what was happening in the fashion industry, Bethann’s revolution and the relationship between media and the fashion industry. We all know that the images and videos we see shape how we see the world, and this documentary is the perfect reminder of that.

A must-see documentary full of passion, fashion, diversity and determination!

Bethann’s fire has been blazing for almost five decades, and she will continue for as long as possible. Her love for fashion, drive for change, and bubbly, outspoken personality are some things we all have to admire and praise. Her enormous contributions to the (fashion) world don’t all fit in this documentary (or in the book Bethann’s writing), but the stunning Invisible Beauty certainly tries and succeeds in showing us Bethann’s remarkable life in the most inspiring, affecting and fun way possible!

Invisible Beauty was part of the Sundance Film Festival London 2023 and will be out in the US on the 15th of September.

Rating: (4.5 / 5)

Read our interview with Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng here.

Also Read: Vanessa Oliveira Discusses Documenting Afro-Brazilian Culture

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Today we will explore the positives and negatives of moving online. As well as the impact it could have on film festivals in the future. But first, let’s look at how some festivals took their experience online.

How Film Festivals Went Online

The main consideration when moving online was how the festivals were going to host their selection of films. Major brands found two methods to accomplish this:

Some partnered with major streaming services to help bring their programmes to the internet. For example, South by Southwest 2020 teamed up with Amazon Prime to deliver 39 of their programmed titles.

Meanwhile, others like Sundance have developed their own platforms to provide both film programmes and additional festival branded content such as Q&As, industry talks, and interactive experiences. But what are the positives and negatives of going digital?

The Cons

Of course, there are negatives to this arrangement. Firstly, the experience doesn’t feel the same as seeing movies on a large screen with a big audience. Which will upset cinema purists.

Some also fear it’s a good opportunity for pirating movies meaning the festival, filmmakers, and distributors may not receive as much money in the future. Several festivals have however tried to reduce that risk by watermarking films and geo-blocking their online content.

Lastly, there are worries about how online showings can negatively affect smaller films. Because several major festivals are only showing a limited number of movies, smaller films might not have the opportunity to receive the profile boost that would come with being a part of a big festival. And some argue that giving premiere rights to festivals using streaming services will deter future distributors.

The Pros

But the positives arguably outweigh the cons. Firstly, it offers convenience for viewers by allowing festival selections to be viewed from home. Without needing to spend money on travel and accommodation. Which helps improve the festival’s brand while allowing a larger amount of people to financially contribute to the festival.

This move also helps industry professionals to continue working. Some digital festivals are allowing filmed project pitches to be sent in. As well as this, online industry talks and marketplaces allow film workers to continue to find work, finance, and homes for their projects. Meaning new projects will still be produced thanks to online networking.

Also, despite the worries previously mentioned the move to the internet could greatly help independent films and festivals. It removes the venue barrier as festivals can simply use a website. And it allows their selections to reach a wider audience. Therefore, allowing independent projects greater visibility than before.

Lastly, it further legitimizes the online sphere within an industry continually apprehensive about the internet. Showing with successes like The London Film Festival that digital screenings (in whole or in part) can attract big audiences.

Can Festivals Go Back to Normal?

While many view moving online as temporary, it’s hard to see future festivals going back to being entirely physical after the COVID-19 threat has passed. Because this experiment allows a vaster range of people access to the festival’s materials it would seem silly to shut out this potential audience when things return to normal. It’s probably more likely that as festivals go forward they will try to incorporate online elements alongside the physical experience. As it will allow festivals to take more money and act as a really good tool for attracting those without the finance needed to physically attend.

Conclusion

In summation, despite some downsides, the move online greatly benefits film festivals, fans, and workers across the world. Whether partnering with streaming giants or using their own portals it’s hard to see the festival experience going entirely back to in-person screenings once COVID has been tackled.

Finally, listed below are several upcoming online festivals for you to keep an eye on. Warning, some festival features are geo-blocked:

• Sundance Film Festival
• Glasgow Film Festival
• SXSW Film Festival

If there are any upcoming online film festivals you are looking forward to, let us know.

Also Read: How Film Changed Me: On The Cultural Void

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In 2013, Wang found out her grandmother (her Nai Nai) had Stage 4 Lung Cancer and was given three months to live. Her family decided not to tell Nai Nai she was sick, something that is relatively common in China, as a way to spare her the pain of knowing that her life was ending. Instead, they staged a ruse wedding as an excuse for everyone to travel home, to Changchun, and say goodbye. 

The Farwell is introspective and layered with a beautifully melancholic score by Alex Weston and gorgeous cinematography by Anna Franquesa Solano. It is a rich meditation on culture, family values, the familial bond, mortality, morality, truth, and pain. It features a cast of talented actors, who imbue the family at the centre of the story with nuance and complexity, led by a dazzling Awkwafina as Billi, a Chinese-American woman who acts as a stand-in for Wang. 

As Billi returns to China she is forced to confront the parts of herself that have shifted since she left when she was six-years-old. It was a move that left her feeling disjointed. In China, she feels American, she speaks a language she can’t read and every so often doesn’t understand certain words or phrases. In America, she feels lonely. Her family and her happiest memories are from her childhood in Changchun. She feels as if her connection to her home is dwindling, fizzling out before her eyes. The house she lived in was sold, her Nai Nai’s old house is long gone since the neighbourhood was renovated, and she lost her Grandfather when she was younger and was unable to attend his funeral. When she hears Nai Nai’s diagnosis, she fears she’ll lose her too and her connections to her childhood, and to China, will be severed for good. 

Billi wants this visit, the one that might be her last with Nai Nai, to mean something but she’s not sure it can if Nai Nai doesn’t know the truth. In western culture, we are obsessed with knowing everything, obsessed with the truth no matter how much it hurts. We cannot conceive, even for a second, that knowing it all might not be in our best interests. We have difficulty embracing the mere idea of collectivism, as our identities are often built around the western ideal of individualism and our societies exist around the self, our histories are built on it. We live our lives within family units and social groups but ultimately we live for ourselves, first and foremost, but The Farwell lays out its delicate counter-argument. 

‘In the East, a person’s life is part of a whole,’ Billi’s uncle reminds her, that Chinese culture and family values differ significantly from her American ones. It is then, their final act of kindness, of love, to carry the emotional burden of illness for a family member. To let them live their final few months without that knowledge, without the emotional weight of such news. As the old phrase goes: what we don’t know can’t hurt us. Or, as Billi’s mother says, ‘When people get cancer they die… it isn’t the cancer that kills them, it’s the fear.’ 

The Farwell is not unaccompanied this year either, as 2019 has been a busy year for directors exploring their personal histories, with the past two months alone seeing the release of Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory and Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir. Yet, even in a somewhat crowded field, Wang’s film feels distinctly unique. It’s deeply particular and has emotional heft that writhes beneath the surface. The evocations of childhood, Billi’s grandfather, and her inner conflicts are exquisitely drawn yet Wang deftly weaves in moments of comedy that are tender, perfectly contrasting the sombreness of the occasion – often boldly directly juxtaposing the two. 

The Farwell is uprooting in the best ways. It modifies your thought process, dissects your preconceived notions and challenges you to let them go. It’s quiet and looming, with each character being worthy of their own two-hour film to see how they respond to the lie. The Farewell is the kind of film that demonstrates what cinema can be (powerful, moving, and specific) especially when diverse creators are able to handle their own stories, ones they draw from personal experience. It’s clear that Wang is a bold cinematic voice, one that has something distinct and nuanced to say, with a long career ahead of her. So, rather ironically, The Farewell feels like a significant arrival. 

Rating: (5 / 5)

The Farewell is in cinemas nationwide on the 20^th September.

Also Read: The Unlikely Sucess of A24

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Big Picture Film Club is back! Pushed To The Edge is a collection of six independent short films, ranging from dark comedy to psycho-drama, all detailing the lives of people in extraordinary situations pushed to their limit. Here’s a list of the films we will be screening:

* 1500 Words (Dir. Andrew Chaplin): 1500 Words is the dark and comedic tale of one man’s struggle to keep his relationship, and himself alive whilst using his final one thousand five hundred words. When everyman Stanley Franks goes to his doctor to receive his test results, he’s told the brutal and surprising news of how long he has left to live. Shell-shocked and overwhelmed Stanley has to work out pretty quickly how to adapt to life with his new restrictive affliction. Life will never be the same again… or will it?

* Lifeline (Dir. Sam Jones): Lifeline is a BFI funded short film, from the 17-year-old director, Sam Jones, which follows a mother in a desperate mother risking everything to provide a final lifeline for her son. In raising the stakes, by putting lives on the line, Beth’s selflessness and need to care for her son is truly challenged whilst trying to protect her son.

* Listen To Me (Dir. Rob Ayling): This intense drama follows a young musicologist, who suspects her next door neighbour is in an abusive relationship. Listen To Me recently screened at the BAFTA recognised London Short Film Festival in January and Bristol Film Festival in March.

* Pedigree (Dir. Ani Laurie): In the city of London, Alex Powell is a successful 30-something banker running away from his past. When an injured young woman arrives at his front door his world spirals out of control.

* An Arms Length (Dir. Max Weiland): Leonard (Jamie Goldberg) is trapped between his yearning for freedom and his deep tie to his mother (Alexis Zegerman).  An Arm’s Length is a dark and unsettling British comedy about a Jewish mother’s relationship with her son. Steeped in the traditions of Jewish humour and folklore the surreal finale becomes a metaphor for the cliché of the castrating mother.

* Prey (Dir. Sunny King): A young woman, after a night out, is stalked by a psychopath in a car park. Prey is an Alfred Hitchcock-inspired film filled with suspense and horror. The film features Africa and Britain’s brightest stars Weruche Opia, OC Ukeje, Steve Mace, Yvonne Hays and Azizat Saadiq. Prey is directed and executive produced by Sunny King.

Tickets: https://pushedtotheedge.eventbrite.co.uk

The post Big Picture Film Club Presents: Pushed To The Edge appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Big Picture Film Club held a screening of psychological-thriller, Mile End , earlier this month. We had a brief Q&A with the film’s writer, director and creative architect, Graham Higgins.

Big Picture Film Club: What inspired you to create MILE END?

Graham Higgins: The idea for MILE END was inspired by real events when a jogger tried to high five me in the street and it started me thinking, what could have happened if I’d got to know him? I go running by the river in Limehouse, in east London where I live. I find that running is very liberating. It frees up your subconscious. So as I was running, this story which is very psychological would just come to me, and I would rush home and write it all down.

BPFC: Not to give too much of the plot away, but MILE END plays on the duality of the main character – what inspired this direction?

Graham: That’s the main question at the heart of the film – the enigma about the parallel lives of the two main characters. These two unemployed guys meet by chance while they’re out running and they become running mates. And they develop a bond, which is quite strange.

Many of us will have experienced that uncanny feeling when someone says something, the same thing we have just been thinking ourselves, and it’s curious how people can have the same thoughts at the same time. You could say it’s coincidence, but perhaps there is something else going on – something spiritual or an affinity between us that we don’t really understand.

During the story, three people are killed in strange circumstances and the film poses the enigma: what happened to them? The answer lies somewhere in the psychology of these two guys, and it’s up to the audience to decide what has happened.

BPFC: What aspect of the film do you think would surprise anyone who sees it?

Graham: MILE END is unique in that it’s my very personal take on what I call the ‘stranger danger’ thriller. People will be familiar with the genre from movies like ‘Single White Female’ where an innocent person meets a dubious stranger. But I’ve given it my own slant, which is to create a story that is deliberately ambiguous. People do find it refreshing that the film keeps them guessing and enjoy trying to figure out what has happened.

It’s also a very different take on the East End of London. There are no gangsters. It’s about an office worker who lives on the fringes of London’s banking zones, the City and Canary Wharf. He loses his job in the recession and goes running while he’s trying to get back into work.

The cinematography by Anna Valdez Hanks really captures the unique beauty of that washed out London light by the Thames, and also the ominous presence of the banking district of Canary Wharf which looms over east London. The music by Ed Scolding is very clever, you don’t feel like you’ve heard it before. One of the reviewers described the film as “beautiful and unsettling” and audiences have found it surprising that a film can have both those qualities at the same time.

BPFC: What are your plans for MILE END moving forward?

Graham: We’re currently submitting to international festivals, talking to distributors. The film premiered at Raindance where it was nominated for Best UK Feature, which was a great experience, so we’re looking forward to more festival screenings. We plan to have a limited theatrical release in independent cinemas next year and then digital release after that.

BPFC: Do you have any projects in mind for the future?

Graham: I have two other feature scripts I’ve written, set in east London. So the three films will be a loose ‘Limehouse’ trilogy. I’d like to make those over the next few years. I also have a drawer full of ideas for other features and a few books I’d like to adapt.

BPFC: How was the feedback from the film?

Graham: Amazing. Reviews have been really positive, picking up on the financial crisis theme, and also saying how “absorbing” and “compelling” the film is. The central performances by Alex Humes and Mark Arnold have rightly had a lot of praise.

One audience member described the film as “full of charm and darkness”, and I think audiences have really found it intriguing and gripping. It’s what I would call a European-style psychological thriller, and people have definitely come out feeling very affected by it. The suspense really ramps up as you go deeper into the story and you do notice audiences going very quiet as they’re drawn in.

Big Picture Film Club would like to thank Graham Higgins , and the entire cast and crew of Mile End. Look out for future screenings!

Follow Mile End on Twitter: @mileendmovie

Follow Big Picture Film Club on Twitter: @BigPicFilmClub

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