With the red carpet rolled out, the film “Goldie” premiered on the second night of the Tribeca Film Festival.
The film follows the story of an 18-year-old girl named Goldie in the Bronx – based on the life of fashion model Slick Woods, a model for Marc Jacobs and was handpicked by Rihanna to be the face of Fenty Beauty. Woods grew up with her grandmother in Los Angeles after her mother was incarcerated. This film was also her acting debut as the title character.
The introduction to the film gave a cheerful vibe, so what followed wasn’t entirely expected. It begins with shots of Goldie running down streets alternating with opening credits. Upbeat Latin music played with the colorful graphics and scenes of the Bronx.
After the initial montage, Goldie performs a dance at a community center for a crowd that included her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. Goldie was a sort of hype woman, cheering on her younger sister who was drumming. It changes quickly though, as real life kicks in and Goldie’s mother is arrested in their apartment in front of her little sisters, Sherrie and Supreme.
This story encapsulates the struggle of a girl trying hard to avoid becoming a victim of her circumstances. Her dream is to make it big as a dancer, so she tries to land the role of a backup dancer for a music video. But suddenly it becomes more than that –– it becomes necessary to find a way to provide for her two younger sisters when her mother is arrested. She wants to keep them out of foster care and thus, enlists help from different people on her journey to do what needs to be done.
This film did a wonderful job at making the viewer physically feel the tone of what was going on. Because it was shot as a music video, the film seemed extremely realistic.
Woods wanted to replicate her life experiences with this project. Moments before the film began, Woods addressed the audience, mentioning how grateful she is for the film and said that while making this movie, she “argued about hood politics” with director Sam De Jong, as she claimed he didn’t really know much about it. Arguments aside, Woods’ influence on that aspect is apparent because the portrayal of this difficult life is strikingly authentic.
