Needing a good fix of Anna Wintour ever since The September Issue? This behind-the-scenes documentary covers her oversight of the 2015 Met Gala, a celebrity extravaganza that raised $12,000,000 for (and at) New York’s Metropolitan Museum and launched the Met Costume Institute’s blockbuster exhibition, ‘China: Through the Looking Glass’. Wintour shares the film with Andrew Bolton, the engaging, confessedly starstruck Brit who curated the exhibition with filmmaker Wong Kar-wai as guest creative director.

With Costume admitted to the Museum’s pantheon, some ask how much space can there be at the Met for the commercialism and celebrity culture that accompany it? The more the better, we discover, at least on the first Monday of May each year. Produced in part by Condé Nast, First Monday touches lightly on the cultural and political quandaries negotiated by the curators of a show that celebrates Orientalism in Western fashion. What filmmaker Andrew Rossi does best is observe the meticulous organisation behind so much sheer opulence, revel in the flamboyance of one percenters at play – and harken closely as the imperious Ms Wintour gets it all so very right.

The First Monday in May

USA 2016
91 mins
CinemaScope/DCP
Exempt

Director: Andrew Rossi

Producers: Fabiola Beracasa Beckman, Sylvana Ward Durrett, Dawn Ostroff, Matthew Weaver, Skot Bright

Photography: Andrew Rossi, Bryan Sarkinen

Editors: Chad Beck, Andrew Coffman

Music: Ian Hultquist, Sofia Hultquist

With: Andrew Bolton, Anna Wintour, Wong Kar-wai, Karl Lagerfeld, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Baz Luhrmann, Andre Leon Talley, Harold Koda, Thomas Campbell

Festivals: Tribeca 2016

For tickets and details about films at other venues, please visit the New Zealand International Film Festival website.

Website: http://www.firstmondayinmay.com