Ambiguity (Fashion Short) from Betterdays on Vimeo.
Fashion films are not new. Andy Warhol’s experiments in his Factory Studio, lead the way to more contemporary works from world-renowned film directors such Wong Kar-Wai´s Midnight Poison for Dior or Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel ´s Muta for Miu Miu to name a few. So, what is a fashion film? When does it switch from its commercial purposes to an artistic discourse? Who are the new names in Hispanic-American fashion world? These questions were answered after watching The Hispanic-American Fashion Films Now program as part of the Hispanic-American Fashion Culture series held at Instituto Cervantes New York coordinated by Project Manager Marisa Fatás. The projection was followed by a panel with Patricia Yagüe, Curator of the selection, Mexican Journalist Mayra García and Colombian Fashion Designer Jessica Mitrani. The selection was curated around key approaches: the need to avoiding cultural clichés associated with Latin American and Hispanic culture, the aesthetical element of fashion as a narrative device and to include as many countries as possible to get a grasp of the creative names within this geographical area. To this regard, films from Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Venezuela, Chile, Peru and Colombia provided an example of the diversity of themes and visual styles. After taking a closer attention to the films, there are aesthetics and narrative cues that mutate into a different genre or visual concept and take its distance from commercial and marketing purposes. There are films with a great deal of cinematic trademarks such experimental editing, homages to 50 and 80´s movies, minimalist settings and outstanding cinematography. To predict if the fashion film genre is under construction is hard to know, due to global appeal for fashion world and to the fact that narratives where sophisticated models dwell colorful and surrealistic plots may suggest they´re branding new clothing styles among other things. As it was discussed at the end of the panel, conventional catwalks are migrating into the digital world and this is good news for Latin American and Hispanic fashion designers who lack of governmental support. A good online promotion of any fashion film will attract a potential audience and provide greater exposure to this pool of creative talents.
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AuthorFilm Critic under construction. Mostly connected with visual narratives and devices as part of my personal search. Archives
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