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PROJECTS

watch my documentary The Illusionists, check out my GIPHY channels, or grab one of my t-shirts and sweatshirts that celebrate diversity & inclusion

THE ILLUSIONISTS

a critically-acclaimed, award-winning documentary
about the globalization of beauty

“The film captures brilliantly how the beauty industrial complex has hijacked not only women and girls’ lives, but men and boys’ lives as well, in order to sell sex and exploit female bodies for profit.”

– Cathy Hillman, President of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the U.S. National Committee for UN Women

In September 2017 I began creating animated GIFs that showed female filmmakers. The style of each image followed the same template: the picture of a female director on set, behind the camera, with her name displayed in big bold letters, under the words “This is what a film director looks like.” The project’s mission was simple: to populate GIPHY – the world’s no.1 repository of animated GIFs – with images of female directors, in order to make them more visible, and allow people to discover them and learn their names.

Fast-forward to the present day: by now, in the summer of 2019, I have created almost 200 animated GIFs of female directors and cinematographers. GIPHY has given me not one, but two official channels: in the second one, I began posting images that celebrate women and girls across professional fields: from activists, to authors, CEOs, politicians, scientists and engineers.

Because of GIPHY.com’s integration with Twitter, Slack and Instagram, my GIFs now prominently show up as the top result in searches – and they’ve accrued more than 8 million views thus far. The Huffington Post, A Plus and Mashable have written articles about the project.

In June 2019, I expanded my representation mission to Instagram, creating stickers that celebrate the visibility of women at work. Anyone can use my stickers in Instagram stories, proudly stating: “this is what a filmmaker (or author, artist, CEO) looks like.”

GIPHY Elena Rossini

Keep Exploring This Site:

About Elena Rossini

Read Elena Rossini's About page, which includes her biography and a description of her most notable projects.

The Illusionists

The Illusionists is Elena Rossini's most notable project – a documentary about the dark side of advertising and the marketing of unattainable beauty ideals around the world.

100 Days of Women in Film

A blog series by Elena Rossini that celebrates the careers of unsung heroines from the world of film and television.

Filmmaker Blog

Read Elena Rossini's filmmaking blog.

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