Top Photo credit: HBO
About Face may sound like a military command, but it’s actually an HBO Documentary filmed by Greenfield-Sanders that aired on July 30th.
An official selection of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, ABOUT FACE: SUPERMODELS THEN AND NOW was filmed in his trademark intimate portrait style and features interviews with some of the most celebrated visages of the 20th century.
Through conversations with supermodels, including Carol Alt, Marisa Berenson, Karen Bjornson, Christie Brinkley, Pat Cleveland, Carmen Dell’Orefice, Jerry Hall, Bethann Hardison, Beverly Johnson, China Machado, Paulina Porizkova, Isabella Rossellini, Lisa Taylor and Cheryl Tiegs, the documentary reveals the roles they played in defining – and redefining – beauty over time.
One of those faces is supermodel Beverly Johnson. Hollywood on the Potomac hosted a dinner in her honor with Kimball Stroud of IMPACT Arts + Film Fund in March at Teatro Goldoni.
Beverly Johnson and BET Founder Sheila Johnson
This is what we learned then:
Beverly Johnson took her name back and couldn’t be happier.
The model, turned supermodel, turned actress, turned business woman, turned talk show host has set up her own shop and has emerged as a powerful entrepreneur.
After years of “branding” as the world’s first black supermodel, she has parlayed her name into her own lifestyle company.
Beverly Johnson with CNN’s Jessica Yellin
She launched a reality show on Oprah’s OWN Network on March 31st. “Beverly’s Full House” features Beverly’s family in her Palm Springs home where three generations come together under one roof.
It’s not an unfamiliar story for the other models in the HBO flick where several things stand out. The first is that they all have a sense of humor, both about themselves and life. The second is that they have found their own paths apart from physical beauty and seem quite comfortable with their lives.
For most, that was not an easy task. They lived in a lifestyle where drugs where rampant: “life in the ‘70s and ‘80s, including wild parties with the likes of Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali, when some models compensated for shyness and insecurity with cocaine. After drugs entered the scene, models assumed a harsher look and in some cases bore visible track marks on their arms. The party slowed down with the arrival of AIDS, which affected many in the fashion industry.” (From HBO) Some look back and are grateful to be alive, many lost friends during that time.
“Some of the women recall how modeling was once considered improper and certainly not a viable career. Bethann Hardison quips that her mother suspected she was a prostitute until she saw her in a TV commercial. “Nowadays, everybody wants their child to model,” she says, adding, “Back in the day, nobody wanted anybody to be a model!” China Machado says she was paid $100 a month when she started modeling in the early 1950s, observing, “I was the highest-paid model in Europe.” HBO
“When I go, I want to go with my high heels on.” Supermodel Carmen Dell’Orefice
Watch the trailer here, these women are great.
