This documentary follows a complex supply chain between Siberia, Japan and the U.S. within the modelling industry. It is told through the eyes of the scouts, agencies and a thirteen year old model. Throughout this entire film, I kept thinking to myself, how did the filmmakers gain access to the world and home videos of modelling scout Ashley Arbaugh? Turns out Ashley approached the filmmakers and asked them to make this film which is astonishing to say the least.
I sat down with the Directors, David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, to discuss their relationship with Ashley Arbaugh and their experiences in making the film.
Why did you make this documentary?
A: Ashley, the main scout approached us, for whatever reason she decided she wanted two documentary filmmakers to follow her around.
Why did you agree?
A: David had reservations about starting initially and she [Ashley] gave us a stack of DVD’S that had hundreds of young girls on them and I felt after watching those DVDs I couldn’t not make the film. I had to make the film because I thought who are those young girls and where do they come from?
What was your relationship with Ashley like?
A: Early on it was pretty tense, it was push and pull as far as trying to make her feel comfortable talking about things, because she wanted to talk, but at the same time she didn’t. There was a lot of performing initially and that was not really interesting for a documentary. I think audiences really see through that quickly. We wanted to understand what motivates her.
What was her reaction to the film?
A: There were a few things she really got bothered by; she said her experiences in Japan were really positive. Overall I think the things that she zeroed in on were like a needle in a haystack. I don’t think she understood the bigger picture in the film.
Did you ever confront Ashley about her hypocrisy?
D: That is pretty much why we had a falling out with her, she basically would set up the interviews and we were not to talk to the people directly.
A: That was really troubling for David and I; it was really difficult to navigate that territory where we wanted to document the whole story, but there was the sense that things would fall apart at any moment because it was based on manipulation, not from our side, but other people’s sides.
David then explains that filming was put on hold after the Japanese modelling agency found out they were making a movie. Ashley Arbaugh had informed the agency they were shooting a commercial.
D: When we told them what we were doing they had no idea we had been filming for three years and the places we had been, and that we knew who Nadya was. To them she was just another young girl passing through the agency for three months. They put everything on hold and that’s when the falling out happened.
Did your views on the modelling world change, or do you think this is specific to this story?
A: I think it’s pretty universal in the modelling world from what I’ve heard. I haven’t had as much direct contact with it though. We went in with open minds and I feel like we weren’t there to make an expose. I did takeaway, sort of this feeling in my stomach, which you say (looking at David) is in the same region as Ashley’s cyst…
D: That’s why the cyst is in the movie, it’s the embodiment of…
Ashley finishes David’s sentence:… that feeling you get in your stomach when you see such young girls in an adult world. And I think that sort of obsession with youth is pretty unique to the fashion industry.
What was your relationship with Nadya like, did you have to step in and help her a lot?
A: It’s hard to watch anyone go through difficult times and especially hard when they are so young. We are adults, we speak English, and we knew what was going on. We read the contract. She wasn’t even able to read her contract. Simple things like that really made the relationship unique because we did have to step in quite a few times, but at the same time we were filming. A perfect example is that interview we did with Nadya; right after that image of her with the red lipstick. We would sit and talk to her about her life and how she was feeling. And at the mention of the word mum she completely lost it. It was moments like that that were really hard to watch because we didn’t want to exasperate the situation any more for her. So that was something we were really sensitive about.
What did you take away personally from making this documentary?
D: It’s more like what was taken away from us. Any kind of faith in humanity!
A: After making this film I feel like we could make anything now. I think by documenting more extreme personalities it does make you aware of how you have to be creative in storytelling. It’s not interesting to paint someone as a crazy person. It’s more interesting to have them be dynamic. I think that’s what we took away as far as the editing process goes and being sensitive to that kind of narrative arc.
D: We have definitely been made aware of the condition of existence.
Read our full review of Girl Model here.
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