Quiet excitement filled the crowded screening room in the Village Cafe on Friday as the lights dimmed. Dressed for the red carpet theme and holding complimentary popcorn and mimosas, the audience for the “STRUT The Yard: The Documentary” premiere witnessed the product of months of hard work.
Although the Howard STRUT The Yard Springfest Fashion Show was in April, the work started two summers before that. Shaw Bernard, founder and CEO of STRUT Models, contacted senior broadcast journalism major Serenity Owens, who served as secretary for ELITE models, seeking to sign a model from Howard or collaborate on the fashion show.
“I was like, ‘I’ll do you one better, let’s just do our own fashion show’,” Owens said. “Let’s make it a three-round competition, and then you can sign the winning model and we can add a scholarship in there too.”
After pitching her idea to UGSA, Owens became chairwoman of the show, alongside her co-chair, Class of 2024 alumna Valencia Pizzini. She said the competition and scholarship added new aspects to the fashion show, and it broadened from just ELITE to the entire Howard community.
The documentary captured the entire process of putting on the show, including tryouts, traveling to New York for fabrics and the day of the show. It even included a moment when a model who was not selected criticized the team for being colorist, interviewing models and designers about it.
Tamryn Sainten, senior international affairs major, directed the film. This was her first time directing a film of this length and complexity. While it was daunting for her, her excitement and passion for the topic inspired her.
“I wanted to showcase all the talent and hard work of all the models because this is an environment where your mental health is at stake, your physical health is at stake, so it’s like why not let everybody see that?” Sainten said.
It was important to Owens and the documentary’s production team to highlight the students’ behind-the-scenes work to put on the large event. Taylor Brooks, a senior TV and film major was director of photography for the film.
“I just feel like documenting our peers, this event, the first fashion show with a competition and a prize, this should be documented because this is Howard,” Brooks said. “We do a lot of things, and as Serenity says in the documentary, if you don’t document it, how will we know who to credit or thank for putting something great out there?”
The show partnered with the non-profit 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The documentary continued the conversation about mental health in the modeling industry by featuring models discussing the toll it can take.
“It’s important for all models at Howard, organization-affiliated or not. Everybody should be using mental health resources,” Owens said. “Howard is hard, there’s a lot of social aspects. Howard is very political, it’s just really tough on your mental.”
Brooks emphasized the significance of the production team being all Black women.
“When you bring Black women together, we’re gonna get stuff done. And we got it done,” she said. “The main goal for the documentary team was to have this screening and we were talking about this back in March so the fact that it’s happening right now is surreal.”
Ariana Saintil, a sophomore marketing major, served as a videographer for the documentary and expressed gratitude to the production team.
“They were able to bring their vision through and create such a beautiful piece that impacted everybody who just saw it for the first time, the process now, and even somebody who saw the process throughout the several months we worked on it,” Saintil said.
Bernard, founder of STRUT Models, attended the film screening, along with Bailey Flowers, the competition’s winner. The audience included models, designers, family members and friends.
Maria Cuevas, a junior astrophysics major at Columbia University, came to the screening with her friend, who is a senior at Howard. Coming from a school with no modeling clubs or organizations, she said the film taught her something new and made her emotional.
“Students come together with this idea and the main thing that allows them to accomplish it is their drive and determination, and it was so inspiring,” Cuevas said.
At the end of the screening, the production team came to the front of the room and asked if the crowd enjoyed the film. After the laughter and “Awws” during the screening and dancing during the credits, they were met with a resounding, “Yes!”
Copy edited by Camiryn Stepteau
