The film discusses the impact of social media and blurring gender lines in helping pave a new era. Then the luxury brands would look at these people and say, “Hey, we like what’s happening there in the streets and we’re now going to take it and appropriate it and put it on the runway.” It becomes a cyclical thing and the issue arises obviously when the streets and the people who are the innovators, people like Misa Hylton and Dapper Dan and April Walker are not getting the recognition. Luxury brands did not want people of color to wear those clothes but people of color would wear their clothes and they would wear them in interesting and unique ways that actually elevated the look. How was that to explore?ĬORTÉS What we’ve heard back is people were not aware of this hidden history in particular, just the whole concept of appropriation and who actually are the architects of these looks that have had an impact around the world.įARAH X We had this whole theme throughout the film that we would always throw the edit against and it’s this idea of a snake eating its own tail. The documentary also touches on the discrimination against Black designers and how major brands have taken their ideas for their own lines. Our co-producer, Hillary Cutter, she’s a staunch advocate for women so she was hiring all women and people were saying, “How do you find women?” It’s not hard. It shouldn’t be that way but it is, it was an anomaly. We had amazing advocates and behind the scenes our crew was 90 percent women throughout production, which is amazing, and people would come on to that and be shocked. We’re in the position where we have the lens, because most documentaries and films in mainstream culture are told through one lens, but now that we have this opportunity where we were wanting to focus on things that were important to us, and of course, our story is a woman’s story. We started in 2018, the era of the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up and as women of color, Lisa and I were very determined to make sure - now that we were in a position of power - to actually hire people and focus on women’s stories. Why did you want to focus on women and their struggles as both designers and music artists?įARAH X I feel like that’s more topical now than ever. I was in awe of all the amazing, talented women, and it’s mostly women, that we were able to get to contribute to the film. You have Bevy Smith, who was key in getting luxury brands to work with the - I hate the word -”urban community.” I did not know her story going into this, I didn’t know her contributions and she’s just one example of many. Our subjects of the story are mainly Misa Hylton and April Walker, but we also wanted our experts to be these women who also have unknown stories in the field. What was the process like of doing all of these interviews and going through the timeline?įARAH X It was really fascinating to hear the stories of all our interviewees because we were actively looking for interviewees who were female. Both music and how you could dress were a means of carving out a unique identity and representation, whether it was through your lyrics or about how you made a statement with your style of clothing. When you look at the origin story of hip hop, it’s coming from the Bronx in the ’70s at a time when the city and the inhabitants are under siege in many ways. Why do you think there’s such a strong connection between hip hop and fashion?ĬORTÉS I think that what makes the connection between hip hop and fashion strong is it’s really about individuals having a voice. There was actually outreach to the community saying, “Pitch us your ideas on an intersection” and we thought that there was a revelatory story that could be told about some unknown incredible architects of not only fashion but also cultural trends, specifically Misa Hylton and April Walker and we found that intriguing for us as filmmakers. Why did you want to explore hip hop and fashion in a documentary?ĬORTÉS The genesis of this project really begins with MCM and Tribeca Studios, which really offered us this great platform and opportunity to support the telling of this story.
All i do is win remix behind the scenes movie#
'Star Trek' Movie Loses Director Matt Shakman (Exclusive)įollowing Remix‘s release on Netflix on July 22, co-directors Lisa Cortés and Farah X spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the film’s timeliness, reveal of hidden history and celebration of the work of Black women.