Girl Model
The reality of modelling is not always as glamorous as it appears from the cover of a glossy fashion magazine.
Girl Model is a behind the scenes exploration into a world defined by glass surfaces and camera lenses, reflecting back a differing version of reality to the young women caught in their scope.
As we enter further info this world, it more and more resembles a hall of mirrors, where appearances can’t be trusted, perception becomes distorted and there is no clear way out.
Girl Model is a revealing feature documentary from David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, that explores the cutthroat industry that chews young girls up and spits them out, it comes to UK cinemas on 10 February from Dogwoof.
Model scouts scour the Russian countryside to find the next fresh-faced model for the hungry Japanese market. The young hopefuls stand in line dressed only in their swimwear hoping that they’ll be picked, they dream of escaping the poverty to become a glamorous model but is the reality any better?
Girl Model follows Ashley, a deeply ambivalent model scout and Nadya her thirteenyear- old protégé. who is plucked from the outer reaches of Siberia and dropped in the centre of Tokyo with the promise of a successful career.
After Ashley's initial discovery of Nadya, the two rarely meet again, but their stories are inextricably bound.
As Nadya's optimism about rescuing her family from their financial difficulties grows, her dreams contrast against Ashley's more jaded outlook about the industry's corrosive influence.
Stuck in an alien world miles away from home Nadya goes through a punishing grind of casting calls and rejections.
She and innocent girls like her are left to fend for themselves, barely able to communicate and bound by contracts that forbid them to gain weight or inches and allows the agencies to renege on the immigration requirement of guaranteed work, leaving them worse off than when they started.
Will Nadya, and the other girls like her, be able to find anyone to help them navigate this maze, or will they follow a path.
Girl Model is released 10th February.