Searching Eva (Pia Hellenthal, 2019): Germany

Reviewed by Luther Richter. Viewed at AFI Fest 2019.
If you love fashion photography and spend a lot of time on social media, Searching Eva (2019) is a MUST see film. I have a sneaky feeling that both the Director, Pia Hellenthal, and it’s subject, Eva Collé, would cringe at my target marketing for their film but I can confidently say it wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for social media.

Searching Eva is the directorial Debut of Pia Hennenthal and tells the story of the unapologetic, non-binary, radical feminist sex worker and online artistic sensation Eva Collé through a series of “day in the life” vignettes. Each scene is captured in no particular narrative order with creative angles, unpredictable composition and unedited shots with the style, composition and movement of a photograph reminiscent of legendary master Willian Eggleston. Shot entirely on location, every frame of Eva and  her teenage fashionista groupies appear in what would normally be ordinary middle to lower class domestic settings but are composed here to emphasize the symmetry, rhythm and color of each location… like a photograph in an super cool underground fashion zine.. The message is everybody, everywhere (however tragic or melancholy ) is beautiful!

During it’s introduction at the 2019 American Film Institute Film Festival (AFIFest) the films director, cast and crew were no shows. While the AFI moderator used the opportunity to express the filmmakers desire to distance the film from social media, we learned a couple of interesting details from her that you won’t find in any of the press or online descriptions of this film (except here). First of all we learned, “Eva” is Collé’s death name. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard the term “death name” but my gender savvy companion whispered in my ear that “Eva” no longer exists and Adam has taken her place in this world. Secondly we learned that the filmmaker discovered Eva (who no longer exists) through her online persona on Tumblr. I specifically mention Tumblr because the moderator shared with the audience Adam’s Instagram account @warvariations and recommended we check it out. I did, and this account only has 6782 followers. That’s a lot by my standards but not the kind of online influence you’d expect from the subject of an award winning documentary featured at the American Film Institute Film Festival who was discovered online.

Since my detective work didn’t reveal the underground sage celebrated in this brilliant film,  I decided to check out Tumblr. There I discovered what looks like an active account for Adam @1000deadcops with just three posts about hair styles. Incredible hair but no poetry, sex work, binary gender insights, fashion, modeling, music, photography, feminism and in your face, live by the seat of your pants, anarchy. Where did it all go? Was it deleted because it belonged to Eva and not Adam? I suspect that this is NOT the case because there is a scene in the movie of Eva’s mom photographing her on the top of their bunk-bed with her lifting her dress and exposing her unshaved pubes and she keeps making her mom take the picture over and over… and over again until she gets it exactly right. As you will learn in the film, Eva understandably despises the brutally violent and controlling patriarchy of Italy (where she was born and raised by heroine addicts turned religious fanatics) but I suspect her genius has a touch of Armani. In other words, the uncompromising beauty, clarity and precision of her words and images is part of the reason so many people (including Director Pia Hellenthal) became obsessed with her. The type of person that might travel light but never throw everything away. Then what became of her blog? 

During my investigation on Tumblr I kept coming across a deleted account @workinglass. It gave me Deja Vu but since almost all traces of this account have been scrubbed from the site, I had no way of filling in the blanks. As I was looking for images for this review, however, I found one of Eva’s tattoo “Working Lass.” That’s where I saw it. In the film! @workinglass was unquestionably Eva’s blog.

On December 17th, 2018 Tumblr eliminated adult content from it’s site. I’m nearly 100% certain that the secret celebrity, underground artist / philosopher and role model for outcasts everywhere, Working Lass, was a casualty of censorship. Thanks to Director Pia Hellenthal, her memory is alive and well!