The Fashion in Film festival opened at the Tate Modern on Saturday night. It will continue throughout the month in various centres around the city, including the Ciné lumière and Central St.Martin's. The theme this year is 'If Looks Could Kill'....literally. All the films shown have some kind of violent, criminal or gory theme, linked to fashion (eg the death-by-stiletto scene in Single White Female.Urgh!).
Opening night featured a series of original short films by photographers and video and performance artists. See my review here.I ventured across the river to see one in particular: Dino Dinco's 'El Abuelo'. Dino is an artist/photographer/director from L.A. I met him in one of Diane Pernet's classes at the Paris Fashion Institute. The film is about a heavily tattooed Texan ex-con, who is actually a sensitive poet that loves ironing his clothes to perfection, just the way his grandfather taught him. It got major applause and I was happy to tell Dino, who couldn't be there, how much everyone liked it.
Afterwards there was a Q&A session with some of the directors who could attend. Almost all of the audience's questions were from men and directed at Derrick Santini. His film 'Frottage', was about a pair of Alexander McQueen gloves that inspire lesbian fantasies in a young Parisien woman. He told the audience he merely sought to convey the sensuality of the fabric. I'd never seen an entire theatre of women roll their eyes before...
The Fashion in Film Festival runs until May 31st
