Girl Model

documentary

Very sad piece on the recruitment and abuse of young Russian girls in the Japanese modeling industry. These young girls (we follow a thirteen yo) are promised wealth, exotic travel, glamour but are housed in tiny cubicles, shuffled around to auditions and if they don't connect with designers are shipped back home penniless and wiser about the ways of the world.

It's a cruel, shallow meat-market business and even the people who are making a living at it see it for what it is. We also follow the recruiter here who is a piece of work. She hated the business when she modeled and now she lies to innocents to bring them in because it gives her the means to pay for a glass-walled house in Connecticut.

After this and the doc on Anna Wintour it's hard not to feel contempt for the whole fashion industry...where the superficial rules.

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