LSFF: Special Event: Who am I now? Negotiating Identity in the fashion film + Panel Discussion

This screening and panel discussion, hosted by London College of Fashion, explores the question of identity in the fashion film. Spanning a range of filmmaking approaches, from experimental to documentary, the morphing medium of fashion film presents divergent viewpoints around the question of self in relation to culture, society, ethnicity, age and digital media. 

Featuring work from London College of Fashion's School of Media and Communication post-graduate courses (MA Fashion Media Production and MA Fashion Photography) the medium of fashion film continues to evolve and surprise.

Programme

• En Vogue, dir. Jenn Nkiru, 4 mins

This short experimental film focuses on one of New York’s last underground sub-cultures – Vogueing and ballroom. Conveying the unique beauty and exuberance of this movement, the film is part of a series and brings together performance, personal style and movement in an energetic, audio-visual feast.

• Come to Senses, dir. Simone Steenberg and Lolo Bates, 3 mins

Shot on Super8 and introducing Japanese model, Minami, this short explores ideas around isolation and disconnection. Focusing specifically on female identity and the male gaze, the acts of dressing, undressing, posing and performing become part of a playful journey in a quest for meaning and self.

• Am I Lonely?, dir. Flaminia Vannozzi, 2 mins

With a monologue that is constructed from the real thoughts and experiences of young women living in the city, Am I Lonely? is a fashion film that tackles an emotional taboo in an individualistic, aspirational society. The contrast between inner vulnerability and polished outward appearance is both poignant and poetic.

• Wax, dir. Vasilisia Forbes, 3 mins

Using the visual language of pop culture and pornography, this was originally conceived as a film and series of stills displayed on billboards. Setting up a dialogue on the representation and objectification of women in mass media and advertising, the focus on a hyper-sexualised female stereotype combined with popular song lyrics confronts and unsettles the viewer.

• Astitva, dir. Shreya Jain, 3 mins

Astitvameans identity in Sanskrit and this film explores three dimensions of contemporary Indian female identity. The tensions between tradition and modernity, expectation and self-realisation are presented in three
choreographed parts; the first represents self-image, the second is the projected ideal and finally, the female struggle for independence and self-definition.

• Transient Torque, dir. Ekaterina Turkina, 30 seconds

Working alongside Moscow-based video artist, Lena Artamonova, this short experimental work looks at notions of hybridisation and evolution. Evoking the shifting boundaries between the human and the digital, it is a visually compelling and thought-provoking piece of moving image work.

• Reality and Virtual, dir. Tian Chen, 2 mins

The contrast between the reality of human experience and the processed, digital imagery of the information age is the focus of this fashion film that represents different life phases from youth to old age. While in the real world, physical bodies eventually die, in the digital world their imprint remains forever.

• The Seven Voices in Amber, dir. Hung-Chun Wang, 4 mins

This experimental fashion film attempts a form of cinematic poetry. Non-linear and visually compelling, it grapples with the intangible and aims to externalise innermost feelings of intimacy, compulsion, possession and futility.  At its core is the inadequacy of communication to convey the internal narrative and tumult of
human experience.

• Mirrors, dir. Nothemba Mkhondo, 3 mins

Inspired by the voices and narratives of black women today, Mirrors was created as a visible reflection of black women’s experience in a world dominated by white media imagery. Mirrors tells the story of one woman, expressing, articulating and negotiating her blackness, both within herself and through the world, in the course of a single day.

• Silver Goddesses, dir. Quentin Hubert, 2 mins

Fashion is dominated by images of youth and the fashion industry promoted primarily for the young. This film challenges this ideal by casting older women as its fashion protagonists. Active, stylish and full of life, this witty fashion film proclaims it’s not the years in your life that count but the life in your years.

• The Dose, dir. Lorenzo Cisi, 3 mins

Psychedelic film-making and sub-culture were a key influence in this fashion film that follows an addictive personality through a number of scenarios. In a society that encourages excess, his visions represent a constant craving for more. In an addictive loop of over indulgence, altered states become preferable to reality.