Christine Vachon On The Banned Barbie Movie She Made With Todd Haynes: “We Still Can’t Really Show The Movie” — KVIFF
deadline.comBefore Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie captured the zeitgeist with their Warner Bros-backed Barbie, the popular doll was the subject of a much darker indie pic directed by Todd Haynes.
Titled Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), the experimental pic used archival material, dramatized talking heads, and, most importantly, stop-motion animation featuring Barbie dolls to tell singer Karen Carpenter’s rapid journey from obscurity to pop stardom and her untimely death due to anorexia-related-complications.
Among the team behind the film was stalwart indie producer Christine Vachon, who dug into the film’s origins and checkered legal past at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival this afternoon.
Vachon isn’t listed as a producer on the pic but receives a “Special Thanks” from the filmmakers and she told the audience in Karlovy Vary that Barbie’s parent company Mattel paid a visit to their office when the film was released but Haynes was able to trick his way out of any legal bother over the use of the doll. “Todd bought all those dolls in garage sales.
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