Picture Me
When filmmaker Ole Schell and model Sara Ziff decided to make a documentary film about the modeling world, both understood that they were about to bite the proverbial hand that feeds them. Picture Me is a new film that takes on in sharp focus the sexual exploitation that many young women face in an industry that could fairly be described as manipulative and unforgiving.
This intimate account features in-depth interviews with noted photographers and designers, but also relies on footage shot by the models themselves, giving voice to those who are often seen, but rarely heard. With appearances by Gilles Bensimon, Karl Lagerfeld, Nicole Miller and more.
For over four years, the pair filmed parties, castings, inside hotel rooms, and backstage behind the runway as Sara emerged as a face of popular brands ranging from Calvin Klein to Dolce & Gabbana. What resulted was a portrait of the worst excess side of the modeling universe, one that few consumers or fans ever witness: young girls, often half a world away from home, unprepared to handle the sexual objectification and frequent harassment that Ziff says is an all-too-common part of their jobs.
Picture Me won the audience award for best picture at the Milan Film Festival in May 2009.
Picture Me Trailer
Sara began modeling at the tender age of 14. One of her early casting calls was in the East Village in New York. “We had to go in one by one. The photographer said he wanted to see me without my shirt on. Then he told me that it was still hard to imagine me for the story so could I take my trousers off. I was standing there in a pair of Mickey Mouse knickers and a sports bra. I didn’t even have breasts yet. ‘We might need to see you without your bra,’ he told me. It was like he was a shark circling me, walking around and around, looking me up and down without saying anything. I did what he told me to. I was just eager to be liked and get the job. I didn’t know any better.” Teenage girls, she says, are being persuaded to pose in a sexual way when they don’t even know what it means yet.
She remembers being a “virginal teenager” and posing innocently when she didn’t feel close to sexy. “The images came out and they were practically pornographic. What the photographer saw was not what I felt. It had nothing to do with that 14-year-old and what she was feeling and everything to do with what the person behind the camera projected onto her.”
What makes Ziff totally alarmed is the absurd notion that models are naturally comfortable deploying their sexuality. Because they are often being paid a king’s ransom for a day’s work, pressure can be intolerable. She has earned as much at $150,000 per day. “I’ve done shoots naked, totally naked. They sell it to you as: ‘Here’s this great artist and he wants to take your portrait.’ I had to switch off the voice in my head that said: ‘Do you really want to do this?’ When you’re being paid a lot of money and you want to appear cool you really don’t want to show any resistance to going with it.”
Ziff is not your cliched whistle blower. She has made a small fortune modeling. She’s speaking out not for revenge but rather to be part of a referenced cautionary tale.
Today, she is a college student at Columbia University. It is apparent that she is one of the few who are able to salvage a constructive fate from such a savage profession.
Picture Me took courage to shoot. Schell and Ziff, who at one time were a couple, have broken up but remain friends. Their project is being shopped for distribution in fall of 2009.
We wish to thank Louise France for referenced source material.
