Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Girl M0del

Wow, what a depressing, yet intriguing documentary Girl M0del was.  This film takes a look at the very messed up m0deling industry.  We watch 12, 13, 14-year old g1rls parade around in b@thing suits for m0del scouts.  The "lucky" ones will get to leave their homes in poverty-stricken Siberia and be sent to Japan, a market where the younger they look, the better.   

Girl M0del follows 13-year old Nadya as she is sent to Japan, presumably to begin her career as a m0del.  She is essentially dumped in Tokyo on her own (not speaking Japanese or English), advised to say she is 15 instead of 13, and sent on casting call after casting call, to be met with rejection after rejection.  She never even finds out the details of where her photos end up, from the one job she is picked for.  She is sent home early - and not only has she not made any money, she's actually in debt to her modeling agency.  Meanwhile, we get to know Ashley, the American m0del scout who handpicks the girls to send to Japan.  Ashley is completely delusional and while she realizes the business has issues, she is somehow able to absolve herself of any personal responsibility.

Girl M0del was kind of a rough watch, and it felt a lot longer than its actual 77 minutes, but I don't mean that as a negative thing.  It was just so depressing to see all of these young girls, so hopeful that they will pull their families out of poverty end up having their dreams crushed and in debt to the agencies that flat-out lied to them to perpetuate the industry.  Even though it was quite sad, the documentary was really well done and interesting to watch.  8 out of 10.

EDITED AS OF 12/24/12.  I am sickened at how many people are doing searches for young g1rls in b@thing suits and I have removed the film image and made some letter substitutions in the hopes that that will stop leading these sickos to my blog. Seriously - out of around 3500 hits I've had over the year, I think 3300 of them have been to this post. Gross.

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