Wednesday, February 18, 2009

eleven minutes: fashion in a flash or is it?


ELEVEN MINUTES

Opens Friday, February 20, 2008
At the Quad in NYC and on broadcast TV

Please visit: http://www.elevenminutes-jaymccarroll.com/ for additional information.


SYNOPSIS
It’s been a while since the sharp-witted Jay McCarroll was dubbed “the next great American designer” on season one of reality TV’s “Project Runway” and he’s anxious to finally show his first line of clothing.
His vision is to show his work on 42nd street at the Bryant Park eleven minute extravaganza that takes over public property to become the showcase of a world fashion industry that doesn't come as free entertainment It is a show limited, by invitation only.

SHE SAYS:
The importance of documentaries has been fully explored and presented for public scrutiny in recent films that expose the fashion industry; its limitations, its potential joys and its search for money and fame.

i can not cry for the winner or the loser of this artistic endeavor where people come together to work intensely under severe pressure to create mostly women fashion(men seem hell bent on their black suits, shirts, tie and collared shirts that scare most women into submission and many a man as well).

It is worse than a baseball or football player because those men don't dwell on the female form or dictate to women what they should wear in order to be "with it'. This is an industry where too much weight is disallowed, the cost of material renders the thinner the model, the better, less costly; where how you walk, which is never possible for the average women, is valued and where character is lost to the dictates of the female form and flow.

Not an authentic ounce of creativity in my humble opinion emerges from the depths of this film other than the creative effort of the film itself.
Jay McCarroll is real and he is funny and ultimately so very sad until he discovers that he is not the rising star-to-be that others have pumped him up to believe.

Eleven minutes of fame all circled around making money but the Puerto Rican parade has more to say about fashion than the parade of the wealthy few who dominate the "cat walk".

All that artistic work; the sewing, the music, the setting, the colors and fabrics be damned But the documentary should live on. it offers so much to feel good about our not being part of the eleven minute competition.

I say, women

Scrap the fashion industry. Take back the parks, Bryant Park, free for all New Yorkers and its millions of daily visitors.



Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective
Criticalwomen.net

2 comments:

cat said...

Nice review!

So true about the parks as "public space" but not when overtaken by a fashion show. (Although I heard it may move to Lincoln Center next year...)

I didn't understand this line:
Jay McCarroll is real and he is funny and ultimately so very sad until he discovers that he is not the rising star-to-be that others have pumped him up to believe.

(Should it be *when* he discovers he is not... etc. ?)

It sounds like an interesting film.

Linda Zises said...

one word changes the entire meaning. When Jay McCarroll discovers that he is no longer in that fashion rat trap he is free of all that amotional baggage. Even the funny man seems to disappear because he no longer has to be a personality. He can be a person like you and me rather than a star, a public person of note.

linda zises