Sport Illustrated Swimsuit question was such a juggerna at the end of the 2000s. It was not only the individual best -selling issue throughout the newspaper Publisher Time Inc. every year, but it was also largely responsible for financing most of Sports Illustrated’s editorial activities for the rest of the year. No wonder: the annual issue had launched or further, the career for supermodels Cheryl Tiegs, Kathy Ireland, Elle Macpherson, Paulina Porizkova, Tyra Banks and Roshumba Williams in the 1970s and 80s.
All are shown in Jill Campbells new documentary “Beyond the look: Jule Campbell’s swimsuit issue, “The trailer for which IndieWire debuts below.
The same last name is not a coincidence. Jill Campbell, The acclaimed documentary of “Mr. Chibbs”If Basketball player Kenny AndersonIs daughter-in-law to Jule Campbell, the founding editor of the swimsuit issue on Sports Illustrated in the 1960s, which has since creatively ruled the annual issue over the next 30 years.
Of course, Time Inc. was a male-dominated place in the 1960s (its headquarters, the Time/Life building, was even where the offices of the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce were located during the later seasons of “Mad Men”). But Jule Campbell, who died in 2022, insisted on creating a vision of female beauty in the annual swimsuit issue that does not primarily cater for the male look, it was more about women who embrace their own Beauty feeling. This meant protecting the models she presented from the male execut at the company, including even containing the most too sexual photographs before they would even be seen by others. “It was a world that didn’t feel safe,” Kathy Ireland said in the trailer. “And I know I wouldn’t have stopped if not for Jule.”
She also promoted a more inclusive vision of beauty: Campbell helped to give the start of rosehumba Williams and Tyra Banks, two black models that made a splash in the 1980s, when the modeling scene was still overwhelmingly white.
“I didn’t see myself as the All -American girl,” Williams said in the trailer. “But Jule did.”
The documentary, who stands as a portrait of Julie Campbell as much as the swimsuit itself, played at Doc NYC in the fall of 2024, as well as regional festivals from Woodstock to Newport Beach to Sarasota, where it was part of the documentary competition.
“Beyond The Gaze” will play June 25 and 26 at the IFC Center in New York City. TRIBECA movies will bring film to large streaming platforms later this year.
