Girl Model

If you don't believe that "certain" modelling agencies are, in fact, recruiting naive, young girls (as young as 12) for the sole purpose of prostitution, then watch "Girl Model" and you just may change your viewpoint on that matter.

My 2 biggest beefs regarding this 2011 documentary is that I felt its editing was way too uneven and (most importantly) that it just didn't dig deep enough into its investigation of modelling agencies (that are located as far away as Siberia) whose calculating "scouts" are recruiting 13-year-old girls (who are, sadly enough, being treated like disposable goods).

But, with that said - "Girl Model" certainly did paint a very negative picture of the modelling business. This, of course, is a business that continues to thrive today even though it, unfortunately, lacks basic labour protection for the girls that are hired.

All-in-all - I thought that "Girl Model" was well-worth a view.

David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's Girl Model is a lot like Lee Hirsch's directorial debut in the documentary world, Bully, which came out earlier this year. Both films are well done and do a mostly efficient job at drumming up awareness to their subject, but both leave things undeveloped and occasionally have a pending "half-baked" feeling to them. While I thoroughly enjoyed Bully, mainly for its message, its tone, and its deep stories told by the victims with sincerity and bravery, such topics as the reason why kids bullied others and interviews with the actual bullies or their parents were mysteriously absent.

We begin by meeting our main model, a thirteen year old Russian model named Nadya Vall. She is moderately tall, with pale skin, and a feeble body thanks to little food consumption. She has thinned herself down to amazingly slender shape only so she can be trafficked all across the United States, Siberia, and Japan to help her family through financial trouble. The picture opens with a beauty judge going through a lineup of girls, announcing their flaws to another woman as if they are public information. The dehumanization he brings to these women, as the looked of unadulterated failure rests in their eyes is hurtful to watch. The same man later tells us that three things you need to be a successful model are "grace, good communication skills, and manners." You'll also need a rhino's skin and a high level of self-esteem, but those perks come omitted from the modelling handbook I presume.

One modelling agency representative named Noah states that he loves the job of a model agent for the sole purpose that he feels he's giving these women a chance at greatness and an opportunity to grow as individuals. This is only one of the most likely hundreds of contradictions in the modelling world; you're told to be an individual, but to have your flaws nit-picked in public, as if there's no element of privacy at all, and to be told what to eat, what to weigh, and how to go about being liked in an industry dominated by ego, greed, and narcissism, it sounds like the gospel that preaches against human individuality.

The film features arguably one of the strangest, yet most soothing cinematographic elements in quite sometime. The entire film seems to encapsulate or mirror a dream sequence, with very glossy atmosphere, smoothly gray and faint images, and many, many scenes with very simple yet very divine direction.

However, this soft approach not only affects the film's look but the film's approach to the subject matter. In seventy eight minutes, Girl Model is a fine documentary, but it lacks examination on the larger scale issue at hand here and takes the passive, almost constructive criticism tactic on the modelling industry. It remains too safe, and has numerous times where anger and emotional weight could be applied, but cops out in favor of a more calm, controlled direction. Perhaps viewers would rather watch a calm, controlled look on the modelling industry, but I occasionally felt restless and a little unmoved when the film clearly could've invited social criticism into play, but unfortunately, took the safer, more emotionally sustained route.

Starring: Nadya Vall. Directed by: David Redmon and Ashley Sabin.

(IMO) "Girl Model" was the sort of "warts-and-all" documentary that definitely had both its fair share of good moments, as well as its not-so-good moments, too.

One of "Girl Model's" biggest drawbacks was that its producers didn't delve deep enough into what was the real motive for these so-called "talent agencies" to be recruiting young, naive girls into the intriguing world of fashion modelling.

'Cause it all looked pretty deceptive to me. And, with that - I wanted to know more about what goes on behind the scenes in this sort of dubious business of modelling.

For a while I've had this impression with me that youth modeling, especially the cast of (almost always) girls who are barely out of childhood (mentally and physically), invokes close resemblance to pedophilia. This documentary confirms that impression, following a young teenager girl (Nadya Vall) from a rural village in Russia to a trial at the very bottom feeder market of Japan commercial modeling.

It is the antithesis of Top Model or other glamorous portrayal of girls striving to conquer it all. Much on the contrary, Girl Model displays, in a crude form, how young girls are de-humanized, reduced literally to pieces of meat with a very short expiration date, and shuffled across continents and housed (or should I say warehoused) in tight confines while being, all the way, to navigate the unknowns of a country whose language they don't speak, a business they clearly have no idea how it works (which leave them vulnerable), while clearly bearing the insurmountable expectations that their whole families put on them as an escape from a poor life. It is an amount of pressure no 13-year old teenager should ever have to deal it so young in life.

The documentary is interesting, as well, in the sense it shows the overall insensitive nature of all people working with these young teens. They rationalize their work in different ways, and they probably worked with hundreds of girls before, so they become just oblivious to the obvious distress, anxiety and fear they have.

Ashley Arbaugh, a former model-turned-scout, co-star the documentary. She has been clearly affected by her years on the fashion industry, and is very conflicted about it - on one's hand grateful it helped achieve some financial security, independence and stability; on the other hand very ambivalent to the shallowness of the fashion world and the utter commoditization of models as they are reduced to their bodies and how they fit the aesthetics tastes of the moment. She can relate to the difficult moments of her own career as she signs two young Russian girls for a trail on the industry in Japan.

All of that notwithstanding, there are some major flaws with the documentary. Editing is bad, really bad. Even as the stories are compelling, they were merged into a documentary in a way that gives the impression of an unfinished job. I know this is a low-budget production, but this is not about money, but a rough editing job that compromises the viewer experience greatly. P.O.V. shooting might work great, but it does require good editing afterward.

They also tried to use the progression of an Ashley's medical issue as a hang to build her own insertion in the documentary, but it clearly didn't work, at least in the form presented.

Finally, I think it was a huge mistake not to let some of the people who are featured in the documentary to speak freely a bit, even if in the form of 'confessionals'. It would have greatly expanded the viewer's insight on the brutal work of C-level youth modeling.

Fairly disturbing documentary about young (way young) models scouted from their homes in Siberia and sent to Japan to model. -Apparently the Japanese market likes young girls.

Our main subject here is 13, plucked from the Siberian countryside and dropped into the centre of Tokyo. The girls are basically owned by their agency, waiting around in tiny, crappy apartments to go on shoots, completely shut off due to the language barrier and a lack of cash. Ultimately they can be sent home if they gain any weight or "inches" as outlined in their contract. This creates a problem for some girls as they haven't gone through puberty yet.

This documentary was very sad because initially the girls and their families think they've won the lottery but in reality I saw it as just another form of human trafficking.

The scout who finds these girls is a former model and apparently hates the business but that doesn't stop her from finding and exploiting the girls and living in a fancy house in America. 03.13