The New Lens: Rei Nadal Nominated by Nick Knight
In a short film exclusively for V titled "Stalker", Rei Nadal equips fashion to subvert the male gaze.
In a short film exclusively for V titled "Stalker", Rei Nadal equips fashion to subvert the male gaze.
Text: Devin Barrett
As the Discovery Issue, V117 features our cast of the latest and greatest ahead, as nominated by the cultural forces of now. This editorial appears in the pages of V117, our Spring Preview 2019 issue, on newsstands today!
“I make films because I don’t like the way women are represented in film; I am bored of seeing the world through the eyes of men,” says director Rei Nadal, who stumbled into directing films by accident, through a digital-era discovery. “It sort of happened without me pursuing it. Nick Knight found me on the Internet six years ago. I used to take stills of videos I would make of myself with my webcam and post them online.” The two have since collaborated on three fashion films, including a joint project for the British Fashion Council.
“[I’m most excited] by stories and identity,” she explains. In an exclusive film crafted for V, Nadal explores the male gaze with a predominantly female team featuring stylist Ellie Grace Cumming and actress Esme Creed-Miles. “The male gaze plays a role in this film as The Stalker; that insistent need to look at a woman and how it turns against them,” while the character arc ranges “from inspiring the traditional on- screen desire to provoking disgust,” Nadal says. “Fashion is such a new genre in filmmaking—there is so much to discover.”