PICTURE ME: A MODEL'S DIARY

Sara Ziff has been modelling since she was scouted in the street at 14. It was, she admits, a way to rebel against her academic background, and by the time she was 20 it had turned out to be an extremely well-paid alternative to college too. But the academic vantage point never quite deserted Ziff. She and her boyfriend, filmmaker Ole Schell, began shooting behind the scenes at Ziff’s shows. For five years, they recorded parties, castings, life on the road, and backstage finagling as she became the face of campaigns for Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, The Gap... What emerged is an impressively even-handed portrait of her exhilarating rise – and of the darker side of the fashion world’s rabid appetite for beautiful young women.

“One of the best films about the world of modelling and an honest portrayal of an industry built on artifice.” — Louise France, The Observer