Post #5: Lauren Greenfield

Lauren Greenfield is an American documentary filmmaker, documentary photography, and artist.  Her work revolves around the influence of pop culture on society and the problems that it creates.  She has explored topics such as youth culture, identity, body image, and eating disorders. Her documentation of these issues has established her worldwide and brought her much success with critical acclaim.

 
Since she earned her B.A. in Visual and Environmental studies from Harvard University in 1987, Greenfield had been producing large and ambitious bodies of work.  As an intern for National Geographic Magazine, she created her first monograph titled “Fast Forward: Growing Up In The Shadow of Hollywood,” which documents the “experience of growing up” in Los Angeles, and how these children are influenced and plagued by the values of Hollywood. The collection captured the life of the wealthy, the pressures of body image, life of gang members, and fame during adolescence.  The monograph debuted at the International Center of Photography in 1997.  Due to high praise, the show was displayed all over the world including France, Italy and Russia.  

She experienced even more success with her second monograph, “Girl Culture,” and established herself as documentary photographer. With “Girl Culture,” Greenfield documented the “relationship between girl’s inner lives and emotional development, and the material world and popular culture.”  She explored issues including eating disorders, plastic surgery, and how women are portrayed in the media.  

At first, Greenfield was not sure which direction to take her career.  In a recent interview, she stated, “I wasn’t sure if it would be sociology, film, photography, or anthropology, but looking at culture was my calling.”  Instead of choosing theory as her medium of choice, she settled with photography and filmmaking.

Greenfield’s first documentary, THIN, was for HBO, and had published a book along with it, which shares the same title. The subject of the documentary is The Renfrew Center, which is a treatment facility for women with eating disorders.  Greenfield lived at the center for six months, and had unrestricted access to the facility, where she filmed mealtimes, therapies, and patients.  Speaking about the film, Greenfield said, “I am intrigued by the way to female body has become a tablet on which our culture’s conflicting messages about femininity are written and rewritten.”  With THIN, Greenfield sheds light on something that was a growing epidemic at the time, and brings it to the attention of the public in a unique way.  THIN was selected for the Sundance Film Festival competition in 2006.  THIN garnered much praise and acclaim, winning Greenfield the John Grierson Award for director of the best feature-length documentary at the London Film Festival 2006 and an Emmy nomination in 2007 for best director of non-fiction programming. 

THIN (HBO) [Full Doc via Youtube]

As a filmmaker, Greenfield, rather than to just entertain, she creates films to shed light on issues that matter to her. As bell hooks said, “and even though most folks will say that they go to the movies to be entertained, if the truth be told lots of us, myself included, go to the movies to learn stuff” (2 bell hooks).  Greenfield uses the medium of motion pictures to not only explore and learn about the issues that matter to her, but to bring awareness to her viewers.  Greenfield’s work makes us aware of how much we, as a society, let pop culture influence us, and how we allow it to take control of our image, personalities, and daily routines.  Without filmmakers and thinkers, like Lauren Greenfield, to create an alternative narrative to challenge the accepted, pop culture, laced with stereotypes, propaganda of body image, and consumerism, would have a greater hold on society than it does now. 

Bibliography

Hooks, Bell. "Making Movie Magic." Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies. New York, NY: Routledge, 1996. 1-9. Print.
 
Links
Lauren Greenfield: Director Statement on THIN

Fast Forward: Growing Up In the Shadow of Hollywood

Girl Culture Slideshow

Interview with Harvardwood

THIN (HBO) via Youtube