E L    M A T A D O R  

A SHORT FILM BY OLIVIA GENOVESE IN COLLABORATION WITH ME & YOU AND LORDE INC.

This series was all about collaboration between a group of girls – all working in different mediums, but all interested in the same thing - female power and representation. Through this project we brought our voices and perspectives together to create a series which blends our aesthetics, politics, and attitudes. It was a perfect fit as each party is motivated and passionate about promoting diversity, body positivity, and female collaboration. -Monica Moraru 

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SHADE MAGAZINE 2016

Our intention behind the series was to depict the two models, Azha & Rewina, with as much agency and attitude as the clothes they wear. Me and You’s power as a brand lies in how they synthesize the softness of feminine aesthetics with shrewd confrontational graphics. Throughout the series, Me and You acted as the models’ superhero costume –by putting them on they become audacious and autonomous – assured within their own femininity, sexuality, and self expression.

Expressing these themes in a cinematic, tongue-in-cheek kind of way was a conscious reference to films which defy genre-stereotypes to ironically comment on them. We were influenced by Tarantino’s leading women protagonists - especially in films such as Death Proof, where narrative power is given to an (often and unjustly unrepresented) group of women - creating a new space in which once exploited characters take charge of their narrative, subvert their traditional gender stereotypes, and assume their roles as distinctive, vivid and rich female characters. Azha and Rewina are symbolic of that in this series, their active and confrontational gaze morph themes of ~girl power kicking-ass!~with an undercurrent of vulnerability, honesty and intimacy.

With “El Matador”, we are hoping to further what the girls behind Lorde Inc. and Me and You are already doing: making space for subjectivity, representation and encouraging conversations of intersectionality, individuality and feminism.