This is a documentary about one young man following his dream to become a fashion designer and show his Collection at New York Fashion Week. He’s Nary Manivong who has never even worked in the industry at all, and is totally unqualified, unprepared and ridiculous underfinanced. All he has is the $5000 that he has scrimped and saved from working two casual jobs, and a passion to succeed. The major snag is to this plan, and more so to the movie itself, is that the Mr. Manivong is painfully shy so there are just too many scenes of him walking the streets of Manhattan looking into the distance wistfully and saying nothing.
He had a rough childhood, as his parents abandoned him and his siblings and they were made homeless when Nary was the tender age of 14. This is a story that is hinted at often but it takes some time before he reluctantly tells it as it was.
Mr. Manviong is a very likeable person but as there are no hints or clues throughout the process as to whether he has any talent at all, by the time we get to see the result of all his hard work, our interest in knowing the outcome has evaporated somewhat. As it happens he does have a gift and we learn that even though he went into debt producing the samples, he eventually found an investor, and thus didn’t become one of the 60% of fashion business that do not last even a year.
In the end it turns out to have been an interesting story especially when we get to share some of Mr. Manivong’s nail biting moments but it is ill served by newbie Director David Swajeski, who unable to get more conversation out of his subject reverts to a lot of repetition even from the collection of fashion experts who comment on the industry all the way through. So much so, this whole documentary could have been easily edited down to a 30 minute TV Special.
★★★★★★
Labels: documentary
