Yellow is Forbidden

This feature documentary follows Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei as she aims to join the exclusive world of Paris’s Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Director Pietra Brettkelly (A Flickering Truth) traces the designer’s Cinderella story from Mao’s China to Paris fashion shows, and the Met Gala fundraiser event in New York — where pop star Rihanna modelled a 27 kilogram yellow fur gown by Guo Pei in 2015. Yellow is Forbidden was selected for the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival (the first Kiwi film to screen in the festival's main competition) and the NZ International Film Festival.

Guo Pei emerges as a wonderfully engaging anchor, one who faces prejudices on account of both her race and gender, but who has an unerring desire to not be taken for granted and to ultimately succeed ... [Director Pietra] Brettkelly follows the action breathlessly, but with a wonderful sense of narrative and style as Guo Pei and her team (headlined by her gloriously detached but dedicated husband) immerse themselves in the intoxicating world of French haute couture.

– Tom Augustine, in an NZ Herald review, 19 July 2018

Key Cast & Crew

Jacob Bryant

Cinematographer

Pietra Brettkelly

Director, Producer, Writer

Nicolas Chaudeurge

Editor

Margot Francis

Editor

Naomi Wallwork

Producer

Richard Fletcher

Producer