As a born and bred Latest Yorker who has championed opportunities for generations of Black creatives well beyond the town limits, it’s fitting that the documentary about Bethann Hardison’s life and impact will premiere on the Tribeca Film Festival.
Slated for a June 13 unveiling on the School of Visual Arts Theater, “Invisible Beauty” chronicles her evolution from a runway model to an agent, activist, mentor, diversity aficionado and more. Ever the multitasker, Hardison codirected the film with Frédéric Tcheng, whose portfolio includes “Halston” and “Dior and I.” With a private connection to the TFF that dates back to its inception, Hardison considers next month’s Latest York debut to be a full-circle moment.
Friends and admirers can even catch “Invisible Beauty,” by buying tickets for June 14 or June 17 screenings on the festival. Being the film’s subject and co-director heightens the meaning of the endeavor.
“People think it’s my life story. In a way, it’s not. It’s a story a few woman who was very dedicated to creating change. You get a likelihood to see her youthfulness, and a bit of bit about her background and family. The common thread of the story is de facto her activism and the advocacy,” Hardison said. “Everyone keeps saying it’s been a lifelong commitment. After I look back, I assume so. But I don’t take a look at it that way.”
After a long time of calling for and helping to create and enact greater diversity in the style industry, Hardison said that helping the industry to know that “you’ll be able to have models of color every season on the runway and in promoting” has been one standout. But that evident impact on other industries has at all times been “her quiet intention,” she said. “Once you begin to see women of color, you subliminally wouldn’t think anything aside from it was normal. That, to me, has been achieved.”
Iman, Naomi Campbell, Zendaya, Whoopi Goldberg, Tracee Ellis Ross, Tyson Beckford, Aurora James, Kyle Hagler, James Sculley and Liya Kebede are among the many industry insiders and friends featured within the film. As for what Hardison hopes people will consider once they hear her name, she said, “’Legend’ is what all of them say, which cracks me up. But I believe it’s really ‘damned to the top — just determined.’”
The trailblazer was honored earlier this yr by the NAACP with its Vanguard award — the second recipient to receive it. The predecessor Ruth Carter was available for the festivities. Hardison considered the award “a reckoning, because we’re at all times attempting to get the NAACP to acknowledge fashion. It’s at all times been something that has not been a necessity for them in some ways. Nevertheless it’s now come to pass that they’re recognizing it in a way that is excellent.”
Having shown “Invisible Beauty” on the Sundance Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival, the film will likely be shown on the Berkshire International Film Festival later next month. Soon she will likely be off to London for the film and various other film festivals. Hardison also plans to squeeze in a month in Marrakech. On Sept. 7, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art in Brooklyn will open an exhibition about Hardison. The curator and museum director first got to know her of their Trace magazine days and were inspired by her.
On one other front, Hardison is strengthening the Designers Hub, a network of fashion industry professionals fostering and empowering recent generations of Black designers and Black-owned fashion brands. Plans are underway to deal with the organization, which is a extension of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, to offer business space, a spot for talks and other events in Brooklyn. Designer Brandon Blackwood has offered the street-level floor and extra space in a Bedford Avenue historic constructing that he purchased and renovated.
Her marching orders at the moment are to get the second half of her book to the publisher by this fall. It was temporarily sidelined after the film’s completion took precedence. Every time others observe that she keeps getting awards, her response is, “’Well, how many individuals have been around long enough to have done something that continues to be pertinent and percolating? Anything to do with diversity, race or perhaps a woman’s lifestyle is so necessary for people to see what one is able to. That’s why the film may be very emotional to loads of people. They laugh through it and so they cry. I’m still trying to know why people cry during it. At Sundance, so many individuals got here out of the premiere with tears of their eyes. I believed, ‘Wow.’”
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