All language subtitles for Donyale.Luna.Supermodel.2023.1080p.WEBRip.x265.10bit.AAC5.1-[YTS.MX]

Downloaded from
YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

(contemplative music playing)

(film projector rattling)

Johnny Carson:
We have a very lovely gal
with us tonight.

She's considered
the number-one model

in what they call
"ultra-high fashion."

Welcome Miss Danielle Luna.

(applause)

Uh, this is, uh,
Danielle Luna, who is, uh--

-Donyale.
-Johnny: Dan-- Donyale.
Donyale. I'm sorry.

She's one
of the highest-paid
fashion models,

uh, in the business.

Could you give me
an idea of, uh, something
you-you might do?

Uh, suppose we took a close-up
and I wanted a, uh--

-Um, let's see.
-I'm not good
at this type of stuff.

-Uh, I'll give you
the Luna look.
-Alrighty.

Donyale Luna:
You go like this.

(laughter and applause)

(peaceful music playing)

Pat Cleveland:
Donyale Luna,

she was, like,
something ethereal.

If she walked into
this room right now,

the whole place
would just-- it would float.

Speaker:
I think some people
thought that she was

from another planet.

She did not look
like any human being

I had ever seen or met.

Constance White:
She was in London.
She was in Paris.

She was in Italy.

She was the first Black woman
to be on the cover of "Vogue."

But strangely enough,
we've totally forgotten
about her.

My understanding
of the first Black woman

to cover a "Vogue" magazine
was Beverly Johnson.

And what was weird is,
somebody who had been

a model manager
for the last 25 years,

I didn't know
who Donyale Luna was.

I never heard of Donyale Luna.

Omar K. Boone:
She was the first Black
supermodel in the world.

People should know who she is.

Speaker 1:
Why don't we know
more about her?

Speaker 2:
They always said to her,

"Where are you from?"

And she'd always say,
"My name is Luna.

I'm from the moon."

(birds calling)

(bell tolling)

(projector rattling)

Dream Cazzaniga:
Growing up in Italy,

I remember seeing the moon.

My nanny was telling me,

"Oh, look, uh, that's your mom
looking upon you from the sky."

I never doubted that.

Whenever I was
looking at the moon,

I thought that was
my blessing from her.

When my mom passed away,
I was, uh, 18 months old.

And my grandparents
raised me after she passed.

They told me she passed
because of a, a heart condition,

but growing up,

the subject of my mom was
kind of a taboo in the house.

So, I didn't really
know what was the truth.

When a child is that little,

when I was that little,
I needed her.

It's very hard to understand
that you matter to someone

if you don't have
any memories with her

and if there is,
uh, basically, no one
helping you build

the picture of her
and you together.

These are some
of my mom's writings.

She writes about her friends,
about my father, about me.

And there's
so many interesting stories
that tell me who she was.

(wind whistling)

"Once upon a time,

"a little colored girl

"was born inside a goddess.

"With a heart made of dreams
and a mind made of love,

"she took her
long, skinny legs

"and came
into this world, Earth.

Oh, Lord, yes, she did."

Omar:
Donyale Luna was just
a girl from Detroit,

and her real name
was Peggy Ann Freeman.

Yeah, I'd call her
by her real name.

I'd say, "Peggy!"

(laughs)

And she'd crack up.

Lillian Washington: Okay.
Let me put these pictures up.

-So, you gonna--
-Oh, I got a good one.

Oh, let me see. Let me see.

This is the famous
Donyale Luna,

this is her graduation picture.

Marcella Washington: Wow.
How old was she on that picture?

Lillian:
She's about 16 or 17 that day.

-Marcella:
Oh, she graduated early?
-Lillian: Yes.

Marcella:
Pretty. Very pretty.

Lillian:
I always called her
Little Peggy

'cause that's what Mama
named her, after, after Mama.

Big Peggy and Little Peggy.

Okay. Let me see
what else is in here.

This is Donyale's mother.

She was gorgeous.

My mama looked like
Queen Elizabeth. (chuckles)

I used to say that,
and that's where Donyale got
a majority of her beauty.

The light complexion
she, she got from my mother.

But see, my father
was quite handsome, too,

even though he were,

he were a, a brown skin,
caramel-colored Black man,

and I had same complexion.

I always felt that I wasn't
pretty, you know, as her.

I did-- I never felt
that I was pretty.

Our parents were part
of the Great Migration

from down south
to up north to work.

My mother, she worked
at the YWCA for 27 years,

and our father worked
at Henry Ford's Motor Company

for 37 years.

So, we were
very well taken care of.

But, uh, because my mother
was very strict,

we were kept
from a lotta things that
everybody else did normally.

We weren't allowed
to go roller-skating.

We weren't allowed
to have birthday parties.

But Donyale was
the bright side of everything.

She didn't let anything
keep her down too long.

Josephine Armstrong:
She knew she wanted to be

something special
when she grew up,

that she had something
in her mind that she wanted
to do with her life.

(rehearsal piano music playing)

She was in this
arts group here in Detroit,

and she was in,
um, several plays,

and she was the star
of a couple of 'em.

She always wanted
to be a movie star.

She loved "West Side Story."

Anita (sings):
♪ Life can be bright
in America ♪

Boys (sing):
♪ If you can fight in America ♪

Girls (sing):
♪ Life is alright in America ♪

Boys (sing):
♪ If you're all white
in America ♪

(cheering, chattering)

Omar:
Here was this incredibly
tall, beautiful woman.

I mean,
even at that awkward age,

and she was kinda awkward,

I always, I always
th-thought of her as a gazelle

with the neck
that just, like, pshew.

What a neck, I mean,
I mean, she was unique.

There was no doubt about it.

Lillian:
She had a certain charisma,

a certain, uh, aura,
a certain style.

But, uh, all the Black fellas
thought she was crazy.

They didn't like her.

They thought she
was skinny and bony.

They called her "Olive Oyl."

They hurt her to her core.

(contemplative music playing)

Dream: "No one thought
I was beautiful in Detroit.

"I was very ashamed
of myself, almost paranoid,

"always wishing I could look
like this person or that.

I wanted to be
a typical something."

Announcer:
T-minus 60 seconds
and counting.

Lillian:
I think that encouraged her
to create her own persona

where she's beautiful
and people see her beautiful.

Announcer:
Good luck and godspeed.

Lillian:
She was in her late teens,

and she created
the persona of Donyale Luna.

John Glenn:
Oh, that view is tremendous!

Lillian:
She wrote it and wrote it,

and then she
wrote it some more.

And I looked at it, I said,
"'Donyale Luna,' that's good."

Then she changed
the way she talked.

She created an accent,

but she had never been
anywhere to get an accent.

I was just wonderin',
"Why is she doin' this?"

First the name, Donyale Luna.
Is this a real name?

Donyale:
Yes, it is.

It's part of my name.

My complete name is

Peggy Anna Donyale
Cazzaniga Luna Freeman,

but, uh, I just cut it short
and use "Donyale Luna."

Interviewer:
What sort of, uh, racial mixture
do all those names come from?

(sighs) You name it,
and it's there. Everything.

It's like
a, a melting pot of, say,

different nationalities,
different people, everything.

My father, the Donyale persona?

(disapprovingly)
Mm-mm, mm-mm.

"Oh, you don't wanna be Black?
You're Black."

She didn't give a damn.

She created
a, a new person, a new being.

She says, "I am me."

Sanders Bryant:
I first met Peggy

in 1962 in high school.

One day, she was, uh, kind of
by herself, off to herself,

and I sat
and joined her for lunch.

She introduced herself
as Donyale Luna.

She would say that she was

part... Indian,
Spanish, Irish.

She'd just go down
the list of nationalities

and claimed
to be a part of them.

So, her persona
kind of developed,

but this was,
definitely... an escape.

Her mother and father
had been apart

and remarried
three or four times.

I heard he could get belligerent

and, uh... uh, physical.

But Donyale,

if anything serious
was to be discussed,

she wanted
to change the subject.

Donyale lived...
in sort of a... way

where she would pretend
and she would tell stories,

and she black out
many things in her life.

Sanders:
In a sense,

she herself
lived a performance.

My, my favorite flower,

perfect flower,
I don't have any.

I don't have one.

(chuckles)

Favorite what? Color?

Um, yellow.

Because the color
yellow is deceiving

and I like it on me,

and I like, uh, what,
what it represents

because I'm a very
deceiving person.

David McCabe:
I was in Detroit

working on an assignment
for Ford Motors,

and, uh, Donyale
happened to stop by

and watch what was going on,

and she was on her way
back from school, um,

uh, wearing her school uniform.

She was almost
six feet tall,

and she had legs
that went on for a mile,

and a beautiful smile.

I was just stunned.

I gave her my card and said,

"If you're ever
in New York, give me a call.

I think you could model."

And she said,
"But I'm only 14."
(chuckles)

He saw me and he thought
I was, oh, so fantastic,

and he says,
"You must be a model."

And I says, "No, I'm not."

And, uh, he said,
"Well, here's my card.

If you ever come to New York,
please look me up."

Five minutes later,
he ran back to me and he says,

"You've got to come to New York.
You've got to do this and that."

-Interviewer: He looked you up?
-Well, no, not that.

It's-- You, y-- He knew
something that I didn't know.

Aurora James:
When you're a young girl
like Donyale Luna

and you have someone
come up to you and say,
"You're beautiful,

"I think that you
should come to New York

and do this amazing,
glamorous thing,"

of course, you're gonna
say yes. Right?

You're dying to get
out of your town

where you don't feel accepted,

where you feel like, you know,

you have bigger opportunities,

you can do all
these other things.

But at what cost?

About two years later,
I get a, a call from her, uh,

saying that she's going
to be in New York

and could I help her, uh,
maybe get with a modeling agency

and, and take some
photographs of her

so she could present
them to the agency?

There is one other thing
that I do remember, uh,

and that was that she claimed

that she was so exotic-looking

because one
of her parents was Mexican.

I mean, I don't know
if that was, perhaps,
necessary at the time,

rather to say that
you are a Black person,

you are a Mexican person.

So, maybe that--
she thought that might make her

more, uh, acceptable, yeah.

Josephine:
When Donyale left,

I was very afraid,

yet I knew she had
to go and, you know,

go on her own path.

I was a little sad.

I was happy for her,
like I said, very happy for her,

but a little sad because...
she wasn't comin' back too soon,

and she didn't.

I felt like
she left me behind.

That's all.

It just-- It k--
It kinda hurt a little bit.

Dream:
"Joyfully filled with love,

"little girl split
to New York,

became the model...
and got a lotta money."

(horns honking)

(siren wailing)

(relaxing music playing)

"New York is a dream!

"A man danced me
down Fifth Avenue,

"and all up and down Broadway

"men were eyeing
and whistling at me.

"I'll be on top of the world

"if it takes
every breath I have,

"every muscle
of my skinny body.

I'll be some kind of star
real soon, real soon."

Omar:
When she first
came to New York,

she was like a deer
in the headlights.

I mean, that's
how innocent she was.

Donyale:
I was like a child.

All these big buildings
and chic people.

And, you know, I was all
in black and not very chic,

and very young with big eyes
looking at everything.

Omar: I could see that
she was not sophisticated.

She, (laughs) she used to make
me laugh 'cause she was--

she, she would pronounce
"asparagus" as "as-par-gee."

(chuckles)
And, and, and I said,
"Donyale, no.

That-That's not the way
ya pronounce it," you know?

But she was a quick learner,

and that is one of the things
that endeared me to her.

She learned quickly.

Dr. Richard J. Powell:
David McCabe's invitation
to Donyale Luna

to, uh, come to New York

in the fall of 1964
is fortuitous.

She is entering, uh,
an incredibly exciting moment

in the art world.

And, perhaps,
the ultimate artist

in 1964/'65 is Andy Warhol.

(shutter clicks)

David:
At the time that I was doing
the shootings of Andy Warhol,

I took Donyale with me

over to his factory
one afternoon.

And he was absolutely
beguiled by her, um,

and she began to hang
with the-- all the crowd
from the Factory.

(indistinct chatter)

So Andy Warhol,
some people referred to him
as "The Vampire."

And what they meant by that
is that he kind of enjoyed

kind of taking on
the lifeblood and flow of,

of other people's
talents and energies.

And he saw in Donyale Luna
a, a personality and a spirit

that was kind of tailor-made.

(cool jazz music playing)

And it didn't take long
for Donyale Luna

to be a part
of this lively cultural scene

that was going on in New York.

I met Donyale Luna in 1965

at a club called Il Mio.

I used to go there
every night to dance for free

and drink for free
because I was me.

I looked over across
the tiny dance floor,

and she was dancing away,
"undulating" I call it,

from the toes up to the head
then down again.

No one danced like Donyale Luna.

I said, "Hello."
She goes, "Hi, baby."

I said, "Hi."

She said, "I'm Donyale,"
and I said, "I know."

I think she's
the most beautiful woman
I've ever met in my life.

I don't think so, I know so.

People would literally stop,
sometimes 15 feet away from her.

Her face read from blocks away,

which taught photographers
to understand.

The arms sell sweaters
and the face sells dreams.

And they could see that.

Donyale:
To go to New York
was like a dream.

It was like Emerald City,
like, uh, you know,
"Alice in Wonderland."

David McCabe called up
"Harper's Bazaar"

and then I went
to "Harper's Bazaar"
that afternoon.

Uh, I saw the director.
She liked me very much.

She told me I was very
beautiful and this and that.

And she had
every director there

bring in everything
they could find:

coats, hats, bathing suits,

and I tried them all on.

"Harper's Bazaar,"
"Bazaar" as they said,

was the chicest
magazine in the world.

They had
the best photographers,

the pages were
the most beautiful,

and the photographs
were treated as art.

So, "Bazaar" was
the magazine of the world.

Constance: I mean,
when Donyale Luna came along,

the cover of "Harper's Bazaar"

was something that
wasn't happening

for Black women period.

There was tremendous resistance

to putting people of color
on the cover of magazines

outside a magazine
like "Ebony" or "Jet."

Dr. Powell:
The world that Donyale Luna

finds herself stepping
into in the '60s

is a world that still is,
in some ways, based on a kind

of a Euro-American white ideal.

(female chorus singing)

Narrator:
Make your pale complexion

look like peaches and cream.

Image representation matters,

and it couldn't be more true

when you think
about standards of beauty.

It's something
that Black women

have a singular
experience with.

You're not beautiful enough.
Your hair's not right.

Your skin color's wrong.
Your lips are too big.

Your nose is too small.

Everything about you is wrong.

(camera shutter clicks)

Dr. Powell: And so,
it's kind of remarkable.

Donyale Luna arrives
in the fall of 1964.

By January 1965,
we're talking three months,

(chuckles)
she's on the cover

of "Harper's Bazaar"
as a drawing.

It is interesting, though,
that they've chosen
to make her pale,

that, that they, they
do not make her brown,

which is what she was,
or, or, or light brown.

They, they almost make
her almost peachy colored.

Dream:
"Straight away, everything
happened all at once.

"No struggling.
No anxious waiting.

I just hit New York
and it was all there
ready for me."

Wow! I couldn't believe it.

Wow! I said,
"Gee, that's my sister!

Oh, she's so pretty.
Oh, she's so beautiful."

Yes, that's my sis.
(chuckles)

David McCabe:
I think in the '60s,
there was a lot of prejudice

in America towards
people of color.

But since I'm an Englishman,
I had none of those feelings.

So, when I saw her,

I just realized what great
potential she had as a model.

(cool jazz music playing)

I introduced her to Avedon.

And Avedon really loved her

and, I think, wanted
to sign her to a contract.

Hamish Bowles:
Richard Avedon emerged
in the '40s in New York,

and he was...
I think in many ways,

the greatest fashion
photographer of his time.

He is really

the great gatekeeper
of fashion in America.

Gideon Lewin:
I think Avedon really
believed in Donyale.

From the moment she walked in,
he knew she is "it."

I felt the same way. She is it.

There's no question.

And he was willing to
sign her up for a contract.

Richard Avedon was a--
maybe one of the greatest

photo-- fashion photographers
of all time.

And for him to put
her under contract meant that

"I don't want anybody else
shooting this woman.

This is how extraordinary
this woman is

and she's mine."

Unheard of.

Unheard of for a Black woman.

Let's go to the, uh, special
issue of "Harper's Bazaar,"

for 1965, the April issue.

Avedon was guest editor

who photographed
all the images in this book,

and that's really
a, uh, portrait of the times.

And there's actually
Donyale right here.

Just beautiful.

She is moving so gracefully.

No one has ever
posed like this,

on the ground, the f--
hands in the back,

that long body of hers
out like a panther... no one.

Dr. Powell:
And then there are
those other images

with her counterpart,
the German model Veruschka.

This is quite remarkable.

We're talking
about a moment
when Black people

are barely a figure
in, in high fashion.

And within
a couple of months,

you've had this young
African American woman

defining the kind of look
of mid-'60s onward.

Omar:
She broke the mold

of using Black models
in the '60s,

and it made me happy to see
this young girl that I knew
really blossom.

Lillian:
Oh, she's so pretty.
Oh, she's so beautiful.

I knew it.
I just knew it. I knew it.

I knew she was
gonna become a star.

I thought there
was no stoppin' her.

Gideon:
When the magazine came out...

the white population
down south...

they completely rejected
the, the, the, the magazine.

Aurora: "Harper's Bazaar"
received a ton of backlash.

There was a loss of subscribers,

advertisers were pulling,

and it just was,
basically, not possible

to keep featuring her

if the magazine was expecting
to do business as normal.

Dr. Powell:
Donyale Luna discovers,

after all of the successes
of "Harper's Bazaar,"

that there is a glass ceiling
for beautiful Black women,

and Madison Avenue
basically said,

"Well, we just won't feature
her in our publications."

Yeah. Don't do it again.

Yeah. That was
exactly what they said.

"Don't do it again."

David Croland:
It was unspoken,

but it was just
so loudly unspoken.

They would put up a barrier,
which was always there,

and then they would allow,

and then they would put
the fuckin' barrier up again.

Aurora:
Society doesn't like change.

And so, when you put
a Black woman in a role

where you're then
asking the reader

to find her aspirational,

you're gonna get hit
with some major backlash,
back then,

and by the way,
also still today.

But I think as a human,
what she would've experienced

in being on the receiving end
of that backlash is horrific.

Dream: "My mother
is worried about me.

"I was in Detroit
just over a year ago.

"She's worried I'll be hurt.

She doesn't know
I've already been hurt."

Lillian:
It was deep wintertime...

and my parents were having

a serious misunderstanding.

S-Some sort
of a fight, I guess.

And, um...

somehow, uh,
my father was in the car

that my mother
had bought for him,

and he got outta the car.

I was in the house watching
this through the window,

and I was, I think,
15 or 16 at the time.

And, uh, my mother
shot and killed my father.

She was shakin'
her head and cryin',

"I never meant to kill him.

I never meant to kill him.
I just wanted him to stop,"

because they had a history
of domestic violence.

I'm sorry.

Um...

I, uh, I was
in a, a deep depression
for many years after that.

I watched that happen...
looking out the window

right in front of me.

Sanders:
Donyale did not come
for the funeral.

There were
too many bad memories

that she wanted
to separate herself from.

I don't know the circumstances,

but I do know she did
have a nervous breakdown.

She was
in Bellevue mental ward

for at least
two or three weeks.

She wouldn't
discuss the details,

but I did know
there were a lot of pressures,

both domestically at home
and in New York.

Everything was
in black and white

and she resented that.

She went
into her fantasy world.

(electronic beep)

Announcer:
We confirm the separation
here on the ground.

It's strange because
a lot of the things
my mom went through,

I experienced
in a similar way.

Growing up without a mom,

it felt like something
was always missing.

Some souls, like hers,

and I guess,
like me, at some level,

when the sensitivity
is too high,

you're scared that this
is gonna suck you in...

so you create fairy tales.

A way to escape.

"The little girl felt
so lost in her mind...

and so, she split
to another world."

David Croland:
After a year in, uh,
New York City, she left.

She went to London,
and that's when it
really started...

because it did.

Oh, yeah.

-(drumroll playing)
-(crowd applauding)

(crowd cheering)

(rock music playing)

'60s London was completely
phenomenal and unparalleled.

There was
this sense of, kind of,

electric possibility
and potential,

and it was coming
from young people,

and it was coming
from the student protests

and this kind
of fierce politicization

of a whole generation,

who weren't prepared
to accept the status quo.

Suddenly,
fashion was percolating
up from the street.

It was coming
from young people,

and you have
these designers emerging

from the Royal College of Art:

Zandra Rhodes and Ossie Clark,

and they're shaking
things up, too.

I think it was a very, very
vibrant time in London.

Swinging '60s
with Mary Quant,
uh, minidresses.

And I'd had myself
a Vidal Sassoon haircut.

And then it was
Twiggy and her look.

Host:
Some time the emaciated
English model Twiggy

has been the darling
of the fashion scene.

But today, an even more unusual
and more talked about model

arrived in the model business.

She's Donyale Luna.

Hamish:
Everything was being
shaken up,

and it was iconoclastic.

It was about breaking
down existing rules,

and one of those rules was
who got to say what beauty was.

(person speaking)

(person speaking)

(horn honks)

(person speaking)

(person speaking)

Dr. Powell:
Given the challenges
of Black life in America,

especially, the lack
of mainstream America

to recognize
Black beauty, Black genius,

Black accomplishment,
many African Americans
find their way abroad.

Announcer 1:
There's Josephine Baker.

(big band music playing)

Announcer 2:
The toast of the fashion world

was model, Dorothea Towles.

Home from her
successes in Paris,

she brought back
a $70,000 wardrobe

by the style capital's
top designer.

So, Europe has always
been kind of a magnet for,
for, for, for Black artists

who, who want to be
seen in their totality,

and want to be seen
as human beings

and not as Black people.

David Croland:
Donyale started
to work immediately.

They all wanted her.

There wasn't
a photographer with eyesight
that didn't want her.

I mean, look at her.

Omar: She hung
around with Mia Farrow.

She hung around
with the Rolling Stones.

She hung around with everybody

who was beginning
to be well-known in London
in the '60s.

David Croland:
She didn't have a chance

to become
the "it girl" of New York City

because of the rejection,

but when she hit London,
they couldn't deal with it.

They loved her so much.

And now, the lovely Luna.

(applause)

Dream:
"Back in Detroit,

"I wasn't considered
beautiful or anything.

"I was always too tall,
too freaky-looking.

"Nobody ever gave me a chance,
but look at me now.

Here, I'm different."

-(upbeat music playing)
-(crowd applauding)

1966 is the banner year
for Donyale Luna.

We have an incredible
spread in "Paris Match."

No one's ever heard of this,
a, a Black woman

being featured
in one scene after another.

I mean, it's just
kind of unprecedented.

Zandra Rhodes:
Then Adel Rootstein

made the wonderful
mannequin of her,

which was sort of
very leggy and very army,

and, I mean, they'd never
been done like that before.

They were wonderful.

She's in conversation
with people like John Lennon.

She's dating Brian Jones
of the Rolling Stones
at one point.

(indistinct chatter)

I think you're,
you're very sexy.

Dr. Powell: She's also
dating Klaus Kinski. (laughs)

Are you good in bed?

Dr. Powell:
"Time" magazine calls her

"the most extraordinary
evocation of the negro
that we've ever seen,"

and it-- I mean, we're using
a lot of superlatives here

because I think people
were kind of taken aback

by the splash that she makes.

The girl of the moment
is Donyale Luna.

Dream:
"If I'd seen something like me

"in a magazine as a child,

"I would have died laughing.

"I have skinny arms and legs

and I'm bloody tall,
but so what?"

When I first saw Donyale Luna,

she was standing on top

of a baby
grand piano in the water.

Her legs were extremely long,

and her arms
were extremely long,

and I just thought,
"Is she a fairy?

Is she real?
Is that a real--"

I'd never seen
anyone like that.

I just can't say enough
about how beautiful she was.

She was a star.

I mean, she stopped traffic.

She had that aura about her.

She is at the very apex

of everything that is
most exciting in London

in a moment when, globally,

that was the most exciting
place to be on so many levels.

Fashion aspect of that
is very much exemplified

by the movie "Blow-Up,"

and Donyale Luna
is totally there.

Thomas:
Come on. Come on,
work, work, work.

Hamish:
You have cameos
from the great models

of the moment,

and you have David Hemmings,

who is, basically,
impersonating David Bailey.

I like fashion photography
because it was the,

in those days, it was
the only way you could be

a bit creative in photography.

By the time I was 22,

I was doing covers
for "British Vogue,"

and, uh, I used to have
much more power in those days.

When it came to America,
America used to get

three photographers
to do three different shots,

and then they
put them all on the screen

and get a psychiatrist
to look at them

and to see which one
they should publish.

But in England,
we didn't do that.

I just started shooting
girls I liked, really.

Just stand with your legs
apart and face me. No, no.

Hamish:
David Bailey is
this very scrappy,

kind of, London kid

who completely transformed

the whole idea
of beauty and fashion

and how you bring
a magazine to life.

Good girl. That's lovely.
Hang about, this is marvelous.

Good. Open your mouth slightly.

David Bailey really is "it,"
and if he's photographing you,

that is the ultimate
consecration,

and the opportunity
for a model like Donyale

to reset the paradigm
of what beauty can be.

(camera shutter clicks)

David Bailey:
This is Donyale Luna.

Here's the c-- Here's the cover.

It's printed
a bit dark, I think,

but, uh, she looks
great, doesn't she?

She was perfect
for the picture.

It's as good as it gets.

Constance:
I was stunned.

My breath was just taken away.

This woman was
the first Black model

to be on the cover of "Vogue."

The momentousness of this
cannot be understated.

Beverly Johnson:
Being on the cover
of "Vogue" magazine

is our gold medal
in the Olympics.

It's our Oscar
in the world of acting.

It's achieving
that "Vogue" cover

puts you at the top
of the modeling profession.

Hamish:
She kind of leaps
out of the page

because she's
this extraordinarily
beautiful Black woman,

and there's just simply was

no Black and brown
representation at all

in the pages
of a magazine like that.

I didn't even think
about being Black.

She was just someone
that looked beautiful,

and I thought she'd
be great for a picture.

I mean... it wasn't, uh--

I didn't have
an angst about it

or... I never thought
about her being Black,
actually.

I just did it.

I always thought she was Indian,
I didn't think she was Negroid.

But anyway, I think
she's beautiful, isn't she?

Producer:
Did she ever talk to you
about racism in the industry?

Not really, no. Uh-uh.

Because we were
too busy havin' fun,

and, (chuckles) and
smokin' a lotta weed, yeah.

In Europe, I mean,
she was a sensation.

And when you get
that kind of adulation

and when you get
that recognition... you say,

you, you, you, you
put a finger to America,
you know what I'm saying?

(dogs barking)

(protestors shouting)

Dr. Powell:
Looking at Donyale Luna,
uh, in retrospect,

one might wonder
why she wasn't

as racially, um, proactive
as we would want her to be.

Because the backdrop of this
is the Civil Rights Movement.

The backdrop of this
is African independence,

and yet Donyale Luna's
not a part of that.

When we go back
to the interviews

during this time period

where, um, people are asking
her about her identity,

asking her about
the Civil Rights Movement,

she's incredibly evasive.

Interviewer:
You have the most
spectacular blue eyes.

Where do they come from?

That's a secret.

Dr. Powell:
She talks about blondes

and blue-eyed models

and how God did not
make her, um, like that,

and that, um,
she wishes that, um,

that, that, that she was white
and, and blonde and blue-eyed.

Constance:
What does that mean?

She's a Black girl
from Detroit,

and what's wrong with that?

Not a darn thing.

Dr. Powell:
Many people interpret this as

a kind of a disavowal
and a refusal,

that she didn't realize
and recognize herself

as, as a woman of color.

Constance: There were people
whose lives were being taken.

There were people who
were being brutalized
by the police.

There were people
who were being shot,

and that was happening

while Donyale was
living this fabulous life.

(protestors shouting)

Dream:
"I've been described as being

"both a white person
and a Negro.

Whatever people
want to think, they can."

(projector rattling)

Dream:
"The little girl became famous

"and again felt unpure love.

"But for the first time,

"she met freaks like her

"in heart and mind.

"They showed her colors
of other worlds,

"taught her of the ways
of human beings,

and of what little
they knew of gods."

Juan Fernandez:
There's a lot of other girls

that have come around...

but there was one goddess.

There was one queen.

And that was Luna.

We realized that we had been
together for many lifetime.

We were brothers
from another life.

We worked together,
we played together,
we laughed,

we cried, we talked.

We never made love.
It was not about sex.

Donyale was a genius.

Let's talk about
the images that she
created for "Playboy."

It was just a, a magazine
that is all tits and ass.

I mean, she had wings,

and she was having fire

come out of her vagina.

I mean, it's, like--

they were like,
"Ah, scandalous!"

(ethereal voices singing)

David Croland:
London was incredible.

And then when she
was done with London,
she went to Paris.

She was "it."

But I didn't know until
I got there in '67, to Paris,

uh... the magnitude of it.

I see Donyale Luna
coming down the street.

She said, "Baby,
what are you doing here?"

I said, "Havin' a coffee."

And, uh,
we moved in the next day,

and became roommates...
like that.

(relaxing jazz music playing)

Our diet was insane.

Mars bars, Coca-Cola,
and that's it.

Eating was not a priority.

Drinking was,
and getting high was.

By the way, Donyale Luna,

no one rolled a joint
the way Donyale Luna rolled.

One day at the apartment
in Paris, she was going--

having a ball up in the air,
and I can't stand sports.

She's throwing
this ball up in the air,

big, black ball, like this,
like a, like a softball,

and she throws the ball at me,
and of course, I went like this,

and she said, "Why didn't
you catch it, baby?"

I said,
"I don't like playin' ball."
She goes, "It's not a ball."

It was a ball of black hash.

We're talking thousands
and thousands... like this.

I said,
"Where'd you get that?"

"Oh, baby, a friend
of mine gave it to me."

Friends gave her a lot
because, you know,

they wanted to be her friend.

(David chuckles)

(intense jazz music playing)

Narrator:
More than 40 years ago,

he presented the world
with a new idea
in men's clothing.

Forty-one liqueur glasses,

each containing
crème de menthe, a fly,

and a straw.

This, he said,
was his aphrodisiac jacket.

Dr. Powell:
Donyale Luna famously says,
"Modeling was just a fluke.

Really what I wanna be
is an actress."

That guy with the hair.

What about him?

Dr. Powell:
Deep down in her heart,

she has this burning desire

to be on stage and in film.

She is aware of herself
as another kind of beauty,

as, as this extraordinary
kind of figure,

but she's also seeing
the possibilities

of being a part
of conversations

around new art,
around performativity

as, as an artistic statement.

(playing modern jazz music)

Juan:
I worked with Salvador Dalí,

El Divino,
for almost seven years.

(chuckles)

Ahh! Who was, uh, Salvador Dalí?

The most original,
eccentric man I've ever met.

Obsessed
with entertaining himself,

he wanted to be surrounded
by things that were beautiful.

David Croland:
Dalí loved her.

And then the day she came home

wearing the dress
that Dalí drew on her,

she comes in, I said,
"Where'd you get that dress?"

She said, "Oh, it's a drawing
Dalí did of me on the dress."

I said, "Put that in a, a box
and send it over to the Louvre.

That's a piece of art."

She goes, "You think so?"
I said, "No. I don't think so,
I know so."

(crew chatting)

One time, she came home
with cuts all over her arms.

Ow!

David Croland:
I said, "Where were you?"

She said,
"Oh, baby, I just filmed, uh,

'Qui etes-vous,
Polly Maggoo?'"

"Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?"
with, uh, William Klein.

Dr. Powell:
"Qui etes-vous,
Polly Maggoo?"

"Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?"

The spoof on the fashion world

and all of these
kind of fashion mavens.

People like Diana Vreeland,

uh, the famous, um,
fashion editor at, at "Vogue,"

who would be mesmerized
and blown away

when they see
an extraordinary girl

and would decide
that she would be
the girl of the moment.

Magnifique!

(chorus singing)

Constance:
Diana Vreeland was

the quintessential fashion
editor for American "Vogue."

She was very
well-versed in style.

She had very strong opinions.

She looked eccentric,
she acted eccentric,

and that only served to boost

her mystique and her power.

What she said mattered.

One of the things
she was most famous for

is her extravagant,
over-the-top photo shoots.

And one of the most famous
was "The Great Fur Caravan,"

and she created it
with Richard Avedon in mind.

He was the person
she wanted to shoot it,
no one else.

This was one
of the major shoots.

It's said to be one
of the most expensive.

They were all to fly
to Japan to shoot it,

and Diana Vreeland
gets Richard into her office

and says, "Here's what
I'd love you to do."

And he says, "I have
the perfect model in mind."

And that person
was Donyale Luna.

Gideon:
Avedon still believed
in Donyale Luna

when he went
to American "Vogue,"

so he did a test shoot
to present to them,

so they won't
be able to refuse.

I mean, they did a great shot
of her in a Paco Rabanne dress,

which was absolutely
beautiful, beautiful.

And that was rejected.

Uh...

they were nuts.
I mean, I can't explain.

There's no rhyme or reason
because it was a beautiful
photograph.

Rejected by American "Vogue."

Too extreme
for American "Vogue,"

and this is a-another question
I'll ask Mrs. Vreeland,

who made my career, by the way,
as a-- not as a model,

I was a model before I met her,

as an artist,
she was incredible.

But she thought Donyale
was too extreme for "Vogue."

And I-I just have
to repeat that.

Too extreme for "Vogue?"
Are you kidding me?

Have you met Veruschka
who you're using all the time?

It was because she was Black.
I'm sure of it.

I feel like Donyale Luna's
being was discounted

because she was a Black
woman in the world,

and she wasn't even regarded
as a full person by most.

You know, this is a woman

who upped herself from Detroit
and moves to New York.

She then moves to Europe.

She pushes to be on covers.

She pushes to be
the best of her class...
and no one cares.

How do you reconcile that?

Dream:
"I know I'm beautiful.

"I know I'm the best model.

So, why aren't
I being photographed?"

Producer:
This is from Avedon's archive.

So, he said, "We began to get
closer to the day of departure,

"and then the phone call came
that I knew was coming.

"It was Diana,
who asked me to come
to her office, and I did.

"I sat down,
a little small talk,

"and then she said, 'Dick,
you can't take Luna to Japan.

She's nobody's idea of what
anybody wants to look like.'"

This is Dick's response.

"I was so shocked
and sick to my stomach.

"I said,
'Diana, she's extraordinary.'

And she said,
'So was King Kong.'"

Thank you for reading that.

Do you think that they,
actually, told her about that?

Producer:
I don't think he told her

word for word what happened,

but he also mentions
in the archive that
she wrote him a letter,

which isn't here, unfortunately,

but he says the letter
was really heartbreaking
because she said,

"I know I'm good.
I know I work hard," um,

"I don't understand," you know,
"why they won't hire me."

Gonna make me cry.

(cries, inaudible)

It's, it's just not fair.

(inhales)
I'm not a crier.

I'm not a crier.

I'm not a crier.

It's accumulation
of all the pain.

It's accumulation
of all the pain,

all the answers to all--

It's, it's, it's why
it hurts so bad.

(contemplative music playing)

Dream:
"Am I happy?

"A little, I suppose.

"Everything that
has happened to me

"hasn't been easy
to get used to.

"I used to think everything
was good and clear and right,

"and now since I got
into the modeling business,

"I've seen so much that
is ugly and unpleasant.

I sometimes wish it had
never even started for me."

Aurora: I think as humans,
we really all need acceptance.

We need to feel valued.

Here you have
an extraordinary woman,

who was complicated,
as we all are.

Beautiful, talented, vibrant,

and she was not able to exist

in this structure that
our society has created.

We continued to tell her
that she was not good enough.

David Bailey:
It was Liberman, actually,

the American creative head
of Condé Nast.

"Don't ever do pictures
like this again,

otherwise, you'll never
work for 'Vogue' again."

For ages, I thought that
he didn't like 'em 'cause

they were two girls
in the pictures together,
but it wasn't.

It was, uh-- He was talking
about them being Black,

but he couldn't
come out and say it.

Gideon:
So, here is the, the original
shot of Donyale

for "Vogue" that was rejected.

And then the reshoot
of the Paco Rabanne
on another girl,

who was really not
our favorite girl,

and you see the difference.

Dream:
Yeah, I feel for her.

I never realized that, uh,

it was so, like,
shut off for her there.

So, I guess it was sad
because it resonated

with, uh, that little girl that
no one thought it was beautiful.

She must've felt, um...

alone and, um, misunderstood
and not seen again.

And it's hard to...

to keep that connection to your
inner light when it's that hard.

(ethereal music playing)

David Croland:
One day, we took acid
in our apartment...

and Donyale had never
taken acid, not yet.

So, we-we got high,
and, uh, I said

to some of my friends,
I said, "Where's Donyale?"

And no one knew where she was.

She was gone.

She surfaced.

I said, "Where were you?"

She said, "Oh, I was
walking around Paris."

I said, "For three days?!"

She enjoyed, I think,
being, uh, detached
from being Donyale Luna,

and the, the whole... staring
24/7 wherever she went.

It made her feel free
to not have all this

peripheral objectification
around her.

That was my take on it.

Uh, but the other take is
that she just liked being high.

Loved it.

Dream:
"It's so difficult here.

"I feel so alone.

"Where is the place
where I feel at home?

"And where is the place where,
finally, I'm seen for who I am

and I am loved for who I am?"

(peaceful music playing)

Dream:
"The gods saw that she was
ready to receive her mate.

"On a magic moonlit night

"came onto her side
a beautiful, bright
shining star.

"And when she looked
into his eyes,

the little girl smiled
and said, 'My name is Luna.'"

Luigi Cazzaniga:
So many memories.

I was in Rome when I met
my wife, Donyale Luna.

It was 1969.

I was a photographer
and she was a model.

You wake up one morning
and you say, "Oh, my God,

the poppies, they are out.
Let's go."

She was obsessed
with the pictures
to be perfect,

and she teach me
how to put my intention

into when you do work.

She spoke Italian very little,
maybe three words.

And I didn't speak
much English

because, in school,
I learned French.

If you want, I can tell you
how we communicated.

Sometime, on LSD.

(chuckles)

We would be in a park

and she would be far away,

and on LSD you see
all these things,

these flowers
and psychedelic stuff.

From far away
she would go,
"Chh, chh, chh,"

and then all around me
goes, "Pshhh," flowers!

(exotic music playing)

And I would answer,
"Psh, psh!"

(garbled transmission
from flight control)

We were counterculture
'cause we, we smoked pot,

we smoked hashish,
and we took LSD.

We loved to make love,

and we loved to go out
and, uh, and, uh,
take pictures.

Dream: "Luigi, my love,
my king, my everything.

"I have come to you,
and with you,
I stay forever more.

May all the gods bless us
and help us."

(dramatic soundtrack playing)

Dr. Powell:
By 1968, 1969,

she's continuing
to do fashion,

but that's not
important to her anymore.

Now, she's really, really
interested in, kind of,

avant-garde film
and avant-garde theater.

(indistinct dialogue)

Dr. Powell: And so, it was
no surprise that the films

that she begins
to do after that

kind of reflect
this kind of performative,

conceptual
avant-garde activity.

I'm thinking
about Federico Fellini's
"Satyricon."

(giggles)

Federico Fellini:
Look to me.

More. Left.

Dr. Powell: As well as
Carmelo Bene's, uh, "Salome."

(speaking Italian)

...come la luna.

(bell tolling)

Constance:
Donyale really seemed
to have found a home in Italy.

She was working on her art,

and she was doing
beautifully composed
photographs.

Almost like she became

a creative director herself.

At a certain point, she wrote
a, a story called "Lunaflylaby."

She wanted to make
a children book.

And, uh, the subject
was, practically,
the story of her life.

And she expressed
in this book,

lot of her, uh,
feeling about the world.

Dream:
"Love is my law.

"Truth is my worship.

"Beauty and perfection
is my life.

Chick-a-boom."

Livia Liverani:
I met Donyale Luna
when I was 16,

and, uh, she was, um,

a very special creature.

I mean, I had
the feeling that I was

in presence of a goddess, um.

I mean, uh, Nefertiti,

or someone who's
closer to the-- a deity.

She was, I think, very happy

to be in her own environment

and be free.

I think she imagined

that she could leave
the pain behind.

Everything she had
experienced in childhood,

but also
what she experienced
as a Black woman

in the fashion industry.

I wonder if she, in fact,

at that point, had found peace,

had found a place
to really rest her soul.

Luigi:
We were together.

We loved each other.

So, we made the child.

Everything went smooth,

and then after, uh,
she had the, the child,

and she was very happy,

and I brought her a champagne
and flowers and a joint.

(baby cooing)

(indistinct chatter)

Dream:
"Today, a Dream was born.

"The daughter
of Luigi and Luna.

"Wow! Chick-a-boom
and Hallelujah!

"She's perfect in every way.

Yes. A dream has
really come true."

(contemplative music playing)

I don't have
vivid memories of her,

but I have flashes of her.

Like, if I close my eyes,

I can see the color
of her skin, her freckles.

I remember this part.

I remember her hands.

I guess those parts
that I was really close to

when she was holding me.

Her absence left a, a big
hole in everybody's life.

I mean, in mine
and in my dad's life,

and we coped differently,

and we coped, uh,
separately in a way

because I was too young
to understand,

and because he--

it was too hard for him
to find the right words

to share his, uh, feelings
and his emotions.

(Luigi speaking Italian)

Ready?

(speaking Italian)

It was much different,
was much more wild,

and, um, it took me a year
and a half to build the house.

Dream:
How was it when we
were here with her?

We loved it. We loved it.
We have the kid.

You had your r-room,
um, your special room.

And, uh, I did
a lot of changing,
and she did too.

She was, uh, breastfeeding you.

Here we, we planted the garden,

and your mother,
she was vegetarian.

-She was? Really?
-Mostly.

But she also would like
a, a nice cheeseburger.

Dream:
Ah.

I have this vision of her, um,

with no makeup,
wearing a, a long skirt

and, uh, sweeping the house.

That was very cute, and I-I
have that vision I remember.

Dream:
Do you remember these stairs?

Luigi:
I remember the stairs.

The light,
it was only one lightbulb...

-Uh-huh.
-...just hanging from a wire.

It was nothing like this.

Dream:
And you did light brown
'cause she asked you to?

I-If you didn't smoke
or do drugs, you were...

-Square.
-...square, so that
was the thing.

Dream: "We found a home
in a tree in the magic forest.

"Finally, our home
has risen higher to the sky

and so, now, we begin
to learn how to fly."

Livia:
This place was truly magic.

She was, like,

enlightening this place

with her personality,

was always music,

always celebration, always--

You know?

She was so different
and in very beautiful way.

So pure.
I mean, very pure soul.

She was just one to spread love,

and that's why I think
she was misunderstood
for most of the time.

By who?

By everyone.

Luigi: My mother,
she didn't like, uh,

my relation with Donyale.

Because one evening
in the evening newspaper

there was a big title
that says, "Donyale Luna,

"she wants to rent a helicopter

and spread marijuana
over the Vatican."

My mom was super Catholic,

so finished of the relation,
never ever forever and ever.

"Goodbye
and, uh, go fuck yourself."
Something like that.

Technically and practically.

So, uh, this was the situation.

She never t-told me that,
that it was Luigi's family
that rejected her.

She never told me that,
but I can see... it was that.

Livia:
They were very
conservative family,

so they-they couldn't...

not even...

not only accept, but understand
or understood who she was.

She wasn't allowed

even to enter
Luigi's parents' house.

Dream:
"Oh, dear gods,
it's so difficult here.

"If you all only knew
what it feels like.

It's so heartbreaking."

Luigi:
We didn't have a, a job here

or a, a way
to make money here.

So, after you were born,
your grandma, she said,

"What are you doing there
being just babysitting
and being a nurse?

You have to go and find work."

After a while I found
some work in the movie,

and I don't
remember exactly,

but, you know,
at a certain point

I spent more time
in the car than here.

Livia:
I think, uh, he didn't realize

how difficult it was
for Donyale and Dream

be alone in the house
in the middle of the forest.

This was very, very,
very difficult for her.

-I'm sure it was.
-Yeah.

She was truly lonely.

And, uh, this loneliness, um...

I think was... the problem.

Donyale became very depressed.

(baby talk, baby laughing)

Dream went to stay
with Luigi's parents
after a while.

And, uh, yeah.

That was...

really like a sort
of torture, I think.

So, she was very angry.

I remember she was
very, very angry.

Dream: "Please, gods,
give me the strength and power

to raise above this weakness
in my mind and body."

A mom and a daughter
are meant to stay together.

When I had my children,
it was incredible.

I never wanted them
to feel that

when they needed me
I wasn't there.

Probably as a reflection
of, uh, knowing deep in my heart

how sad it is to be
apart from your mom.

There's a, a sense
of, uh, separation

that kind of lies, um...

in, in my heart...
almost a physical pain.

I need to forgive the feeling

of, uh, being left without her.

Livia:
When I saw her in Rome,
she was changed.

Definitely, she had changed.

She was, uh, sad. Very sad.

Pat:
I'm somewhere in Rome,

and everyone in the room
was totally quiet
when she came in.

It was like something shut off
all the doors to the universe

and it was just quiet.

And I sat down
right across from her,

and this is where
something happened

that was very
heartbreaking for me.

She said,
"I just had to talk to you.

"I have to talk to someone.

"I have to let
you know who I am.

"I don't know if I can live
with this much longer.

"I am so unhappy,
and I, I have to talk to you.

"I have to talk to you.

Can you save me?
Can you save me?"

And I was, like, aston-- I was,

"My God, what's going on?
What's going on?"

She's like,
"I'm just a girl from America.

"I'm just a girl from America.

Can you save me?
Can you save me?"

And I thought, "What the heck?
What am I gonna do?" You know?

And it was Donyale Luna,
my goddess, the person I--

You know, all this fantasy,
all of this stuff, you know,

how she projects her life,
how she's a goddess.

I mean, here I was with her

confessing her true
other self to me,

and I was-- I didn't know--
"Just don't tell anybody.

"Don't tell anybody
what I'm telling you,
but I need help.

"I need help.
I'm, I'm in a lot of trouble.

Nobody loves me."

I said, "Well, why don't
you just go home?"

"I can't go home."

I said, "Go back to where
you came from, your home."

"I can't go there."

And the tragic thing is that
there was nothing I can do.

You know, there was nothing
I could do to help her,

and that's the tragic thing.

Omar:
She never was into heroin
(stammers) when I knew her.

I mean, we-- maybe a little
weed, but nothing heavy.

But I don't wanna paint
an ugly picture of her
'cause no, uh-uh.

It was-- She was innocent
even doin' her drugs.

There was some demon
in her that was--

that caused her
to resort to drugs.

Yeah. I--
When I think back
o-of that time,

I could see it so vivid
in my mind's eye, you know?

Just wasn't-- That's what--
where she shouldn't have been.

Luigi:
We went to Rome.

We didn't sleep
in the same place

because of, uh, my mother
didn't wanna, uh, see her.

So, I went with the kid
to my parents' house,

and she went
to sleep with friends.

I got a call from, uh, the woman
where she stayed, and, uh,

and she said,
"Oh, she's passed away.
She's passed away."

And I said, "No, no, no.
She probably took
a sleeping pill.

She does like that sometime."

She said,
"No, no, no, this really--

I don't think she's doing
any good, I don't think
she's breathing."

So, I took the car
and I run there.

I arrive there
and at the same time
that I arrive,

it was the 9-1-1.

(siren wailing)

At the time,
we didn't have much money.

So, we didn't have
no hashish, no marijuana.

So, she probably found a lady

that, uh, she said,

"Oh, yeah, I can take this,"
and sh-she went.

Donyale Luna,
whose exotic looks
helped her to become

one of the first successful
Black fashion models,
died last month.

Donyale, whose
modeling assignments

included
"Harper's Bazaar" and "Vogue,"

died of heart failure.

She was 33.

I got a phone call
from her husband, Luigi,

and he was very distraught
and, you know, crying.

Uh...

he told me that,
uh, she had passed.

He said she died
from a overdose.

I said, "No, no, no, no, no.
That's, that's wrong."

She didn't,
she didn't participate--

She might participate,
but when she participated,
as far as I knew,

it was like a little taste
of this maybe, some wine,

some-- a little
w-weed, you know?

But nothing, nothing addictive.

She wasn't
addicted to anything
as far as I knew.

I don't believe that it
was an overdose of drugs.

She had just had a child,
for Christ's sakes.

What mother...

would create a situation

that she ODs from drugs?

I don't believe it.

David Croland:
Donyale was not suicidal.

She loved life.
She loved people.

She loved... loved her life.

Her heart just gave out.

There's one scene
that I'm gonna tell you.

This is, uh,
I never talked about it.

But when we went to Rome,
um, the day before she died,

and she got off
the car because, uh,

and she took you in her arms
and then she crossed the street.

She almost got
run over by a truck.

And she went
to give you in the hands
of your babysitters.

So, that's, uh, and then,
and then she died the night,

the same night.

So, maybe she was
feeling something.

Maybe she was, you know?

Wow.

And we were in front
of, uh, the grandparents' house?

Yeah.

It sounds like, uh,
it was a sort of a...

goodbye, in a way, to, to me.

That's what I think.

That's what I identify
as a goodbye, but, you know,

I don't think she wanted to die.

Dream:
They told me a story
I could understand

of how she passed,

but it was actually the truth.

She passed because
her heart was, uh, broken.

I love you, Mom.

And I know you do too.

I know.

What would you like to tell her
if she was here with us?

Luigi:
"Why did you leave?"

Dream:
And what do you think
she would answer?

(wind blowing softly)

Luigi: Listen to the wind
and maybe she'll tell you why.

Dream:
Maybe she just had to go.

(projector rattling)

(peaceful music playing)

Kyle Hagler:
I hope that we see
Donyale Luna

as the personification
of the ability

to be whoever you want to be.

Beverly:
Of all the Black models,

Donyale was the crown jewel.

She was the one-- I'm getting
chills just talking about it,

that invented herself
and made space for her artistry.

Constance:
Image representation matters.

Donyale Luna matters,

and her legacy is so much more

than what she accomplished
just within her career.

Dream:
Who is this one? Nonna?

-Luna.
-Luna!

"Once upon a time--"

Kyle:
Some people might say

that she should have done more

in terms of the advocacy
of our people,

but then others
could also say and argue

that her being in these
predominantly white spaces

was an act
of revolution in itself.

Omar:
She was a star.

She had her faults,
just like we all do, you know.

But she was a role model

for all the girls who have
come and passed through.

Aurora: We still see
her influence today.

Something about her
really resonates with us,

you know,
because she was different.

And I think that
a lot of people are still
inspired by her

and they don't even realize it.

Beverly:
I stand on the shoulders
of my ancestors.

I stood on
Donyale Luna's shoulders

to get where I am today.

Dream:
I want my daughters to know

who their grandma was
and how special she was.

Aurora:
If there's anything

that people can take away
from her story,

it's that we cannot continue
to let society tell us

that we are not enough,
'cause it will take us down,

and we were born
more than enough.

Omar:
She was one of a kind.

Yeah, she was one of a kind.

Donyale:
My complete name is

Peggy Anna Donyale
Cazzaniga Luna Freeman,

but, uh, I just cut it short
and use "Donyale Luna."

(cool jazz music playing)

♪♪