BRANDY HELLVILLE & THE CULT OF FAST FASHION dives int a world where 
fashion is identity for teenage girls and one brand, Brandy Melville, has developed a 
cult-like following despite its controversial “one size fits all” tagline. Hiding behind its shiny Instagram façade is a shockingly toxic world, a reflection of the global fast fashion industry. Through a calculated social media presence and promoting an unattainable aesthetic, fueled by Instagram campaigns featuring its own employees and select “Brandy girls,” Brandy Melville conferred a sense of coolness to the teens who wore the tiny 
clothes that quickly exploded and today has nearly 100 stores in over 15 countries and over 80 cities worldwide. Fast fashion isn’t all glitz and glamor – it’s an exploitative business that pollutes the planet for the sake of profit. Media stories have exposed some of Brandy Melville’s unsavory practices and that’s why some call it Brandy Hell-Ville. BRANDY HELLVILLE & THE CULT OF FAST FASHION examines the far-reaching reverberations of mass-produced fast fashion by Brandy Melville and other 
mainstream fashion brands, as well as the consequences of the collective increase in consumption and production of cheap clothing, traveling to Accra, Ghana, a destination for discarded textiles that end up polluting landfills and waters. Director Eva Orner joins us to talk about the cult-like brand and the devastating impact that fast fashion, disposable clothing, and the pernicious culture that Brandy management has cultivated inside and outside the stores, and how prescient BRANDY HELLVILLE & THE CULT OF FAST FASHION is for exposing systemic exploitation within the global fashion industry.
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For more go to: hbo.com/brandy-hellville-cult-of-fast-fashion
Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion held its world premiere on HBO Original Documentary “Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion” will premiere on Tuesday, April 9 on HBO and then will be available to stream on MAX.
About the filmmaker – Academy and Emmy Award winner Eva Orner is an Australian filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her credits include Chasing Asylum, which she directed and produced. The film tackles Australia’s treatment of refugees and asylum seekers over the past 15 years, focusing on offshore detention. Eva has also written a book Chasing Asylum about the making of the film, published by Harper Collins. The film was shot in Australia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Lebanon, Iran and Afghanistan. Other credits include Out Of Iraq, Co-Directed and Produced by Eva with LA based production company World of Wonder. The film follows a gay Iraqi couple over a decade as they try to stay alive and together and seek asylum in the US. Prior to Chasing Asylum Eva Directed and Produced the feature documentary The Network, set behind the scenes at the largest and most successful television network in one of the most unstable and dangerous places on earth, Afghanistan. Eva wrote, directed and produced The Network. Eva’s US Producing credits include the feature documentaries Taxi To The Dark Side, Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr. Hunter S Thompson, The Human Behavior Experiments and Herbie Hancock’s Possibilities. Her work has screened at festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca and Sydney, has been released theatrically and sold to VOD and television across the globe. In Australia Eva has won an AFI, Logie and Human Rights Award for her work.
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“While there’s no easy fix to fast fashion, perhaps after learning about the deeply disturbing company practices at Brandy Melville, we can collectively eliminate at least this one brand from that scene.” – Liz Kocan, Decider
“While Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion makes strong points, it does so with a relatively generic shooting style. In this case, the message is more important than the filmmaking.” – Alan French, Sunshine State Cineplex
“But that’s always been the vibe of Brandy, a handful of employees and, photographers claim, older men—sometimes with braces, sometimes European—who appear out of nowhere and control the entire company.” – Fletcher Peters, The Daily Beast