Laura Dunkelmann: Do you consider the movie a fashion film?
Ian Bonhôte: We never thought that “Alexander McQueen” is a fashion film. We thought of it more as a film about an extraordinary person.
Peter Ettedgui: It was never really about the brand. It was about the man.
LD: It is not an easy story to tell, it’s strong in emotions, aspects but also visuals, even if it’s not a fashion film, it includes the shows…
PE: This was a very special film to make. When we started, we didn’t have any material. We only had our own passion for the subject. We wanted to create different chapters. We knew what kind of material we wanted but it was very hard to find it. The brand “Alexander McQueen” didn’t want to be involved in the film. They didn’t help us. And a lot of people from the fashion industry heard that the brand didn’t want to be involved, so they also said no.
IB: We had the money, nothing else.
LD: And how did you get the material and connections?
IB: Before we had the money, we reached out to the family and brand. We wanted their interest of course. But we wanted to tell the story in a very personal way. It was never the intention to make a fashion film. Those often end up like brand films and are about the colors or the trends of that season. We wanted to create a real story. So we met friends who were close to him from for a long time, from his beginning in the industry. They saw him with a different eye or say they saw a different side of him than other people who met him when he was already successful.
PE: When you start a documentary, it is about getting a lot of information. The process is very hard. We had to consider: Who are the most important people to feature? Which characters do we want to have in our story? It is not only McQueen, it is also about the relationship to McQueen.
From the beginning we knew what we wanted to show and who he is. There are five chapters in the film and eight shows. Every show has a special aspect and features aspects from his life, and also issues he had to deal with. Alexander McQueen was also a storyteller. Every show told a story.
IB: It is like in a musical, you have scenes that introduce different characters in different moments. And you have the music, which conveys all the emotions. McQueen’s shows were very similar to that.
LD: And what was your visual concept? Thanks to his designs – The story is visually strong, too.
IB: It wasn’t easy. We didn’t have a box full of tapes. A few years ago, there were some big fashion shows on TV in Canada and in the US. We went to the people who were involved. We knew that they have a lot of special interviews. It is funny because they were some small documentaries about him. A lot of footage actually. We also knew that there are some photographers who covered his life. Still, it was not easy to get the material. We also wanted to have some special home videos. We talked to one of his ex-boyfriends. He had amazing footage. It felt like being an investigator. But We worked very respectful, though he is a person, which everybody in the business wants to know. The people have a lot of questions. Everybody wants to know what happened.
