Girl Model

This movie gives us an interesting perspective of the modeling industry. Troubling as it may be sometimes the truth needs to be told. Like was mentioned earlier back home the families think that they are going to be well off and get pulled out of poverty but in reality the odds are against them. And the girls are lonely and not any better off after traveling to these modeling gigs. I think most people already know the things that are presented to us in this documentary but I think once we see it on the big screen it a little harder to ignore. Great movie to see for young girls and anybody who it involved in the fashion industry.

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.

Ashley Arbaugh is a model scout recruiting new blood in Siberia for the Japan market. She finds 13 year old Nadya Vall blonde country girl. Tigran Khachatrian is the owner of Noah Models and represents Nadya. Her mother is overjoyed that Nadya is the rising star. The family needs her to make money and she needs to earn to stay in Japan. It's culture shock, language barrier, and homesickness at first. She is paired with Madlen who is more cynical.

The cattle call is eye-opening for its bluntness. It becomes obvious that the girls are not much more than product with a short expiration date. Ex-model Ashley holds some honest insights. However as grim and sad it all seems, this doc feels like it's holding back it punches. It digs into the first level but does not dig any deeper. This shows plenty of ugly underbelly but it only leaves me expecting more.

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.

Former model and now jaded scout (read: human trafficker), Ashley Arbaugh, reveals the ugly truth that there is no glamour in modeling.

With incredibly questionable morals on display from just about everyone, from the 13 year old Siberian child's mother pushing her daughter into modelling (read: slavery), through to the curious agency owner who knows that there is no money to be made on these girls who stay in Japan for three weeks only to return home with $2k worth of debt for the family (along with a nice mentally scarred teenager).

Ashley, the soulless globetrotting star of this film, is self-indulgent beyond belief in her self- pity, which, if you try really hard to push past her shocking, confronting can-I-slap-her exterior, you might just see a a raw and damaged woman. A template that you can easily imagine these 13 year old girls are now going to grow into themselves.

Yet another awesome example of documentary kicking fiction's butt in the creation of monstrous characters, and nothing says this better than the agent (read: child catcher) that enthusiastically talks about bringing happiness and wealth to all of the girls and their families, and how this mantra of helping others must exist because he had been a bad man in a previous life. Classic.

Watch out for one of cinema's most uncomfortable scenes when Ashley drops in to say hello to the two models in their rather compact apartment (or shall we say 'cell').