Bill Cunningham New York

This brilliant docu-film is about the life of Bill Cunningham, a photographer for the New York Times. He primarily photographs fashion on the streets of New York, the social pages and the various Fashion Week shows around the globe – particularly Paris Fashion Week. He is the original “The Satorialist” whereby he is inspired by the people who wear fashion, not those who create it or celebrities who are paid to wear it.

The docu-film shows how influential he is to fashion with Anna Wintour, the famed editor of American Vogue declaring “We all dress for Bill”. It demonstrates how his approach to fashion photography was unique and style breaking. The techniques he used were original to him and are now copied by thousands around the world.

I love fashion so it was hard to not like this film just for the insight into this world. The images of fashion throughout the last few decades scattered throughout the film were a real treat and I could have sat there for hours looking at the fabulous images he had captured.

But this is not just a film for fashion devotees. As it is a story of a man who refuses to be bought as he feels it will compromise his integrity. He lives on a small wage, refuses to accept food at any of the many social events that he attends and overall lives a life so completely opposite to the one that he captures every day.

There are some very powerful moments in the film, when he is asked about relationships and religion and you are left with not much more information about who this man really is, which I found quite fascinating and frustrating at the same time. But then again, he is entitled to his privacy.

If I had to sum up this docu-film in one word it would be integrity. As this to me was the running theme of the film – the integrity of one man throughout his entire life to his love of his job which is so rare in this modern age, especially in the hedonistic and materialistic world of fashion.