Elza Kephart On Writing & Directing Slaxx
The writer and director, Elza Kephart, discusses her new film Slaxx. Described by the Guardian’s film critic, Peter Bradshaw, as an “often amusing and sharp, horror satire...set in an unbearably cool clothes shop,” Slaxx shines a light on the inhumanity of the cotton trade and fast fashion. Kephart explains how her commitment to climate change activism and Andrew Morgan’s documentary, The True Cost, prompted her to craft a macabre yet darkly humorous movie about Keerat. She’s a young Indian girl who perishes while picking cotton. Her spirit lives on in a pair of “killer jeans” which, ultimately, exact revenge on the employees of a fast fashion store. As the atrocities of Xinjiang cotton dominate the fashion conversation, Kephart candidly addresses the human cost and environmental toll which the manufacture of inexpensive throwaway garments is exacting on our world. She discusses honing her craft by working in the art departments of some Hollywood blockbusters and the rewards of collaborating with an array of Montreal, Canada fashion and film creatives - including her writing partner, Patricia Gomez, the practical effects company, Blood Brothers FX, the costume designer, Eric Poirier and the sustainable denim brand, Naked and Famous - to create the “killer pants” that steal the show.