MOVIE • 1989

Infidel

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Simply stated, Arroe is a black fashion model, a lesbian, who deals with issues of racism in an industry that is intolerant of variation from either the passive Anglo ideal, or that of the exoticized, primitivized woman of color. There is nothing simple about Catherine Saalfield’s Infidel, however, as the film uncovers and repositions layers of myth about female beauty, the function of racism in standardizing our ideals, and the necessity of female self-consciousness in a scheme that demands both conformity and uniqueness. Partly autobiographical, and partly extracted from collective experience, this jumpy, tightly crafted narrative reconstructs the process behind the formulation of self-image.