We’ve all seen photos of Donyar Luna. With her incredibly long legs and piercing gaze, she was the first black supermodel to work with Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon and Federico Fellini. But why doesn’t her name ring a bell? That’s the question posed by the documentary “Donyar Luna: Supermodel”, which was shown at the 8th Moritz Feed Dog Festival in Barcelona and won the top prize in its category.
Melissa Kramer, the film’s producer, was intrigued by Donyar Luna’s photos that she saw at the exhibition. “I looked her up online and I went crazy,” she says. “I’m a creative consultant for fashion publications and I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of her. I asked other experienced colleagues and they hadn’t heard of her either. So I started researching and I was hooked.” The information she unearthed was confusing, but when she found out that the late model’s husband, Luigi Casaniga, lived in New York, she managed to meet him for coffee. After spending the afternoon talking with him, she knew she had to shoot a documentary to explore Donyar Luna’s life further. “Her work as a model is only one part of her incredible story,” Kramer explains.
Portrait of Donyale Luna by Luigi Cazzaniga. Luigi Cazzaniga / HBO / MORITZ FEED DOG FESTIVAL
The documentary’s director, Nyla Jefferson, faced other challenges. “The media’s portrayal of Luna was sensationalized and not entirely accurate, so we had to rely on her diary to debunk it,” she says. “It was also difficult to find people who knew her personally. Many of them are no longer with us, and some of them want to keep a low profile because their bodies have changed since they worked in the fashion industry. We have to respect that,” she says. After years of research, the team was able to contact family, friends, roommates, and colleagues, including models Beverly Johnson and Pat Cleveland, who knew Luna and respected her.
Donyal Luna appeared on the set of The Rolling Stones’ film “Rock and Roll Circus” with Brian Jones, Yoko Ono, Julian and John Lennon in 1968. Cummings Archives/Redferns/Getty Images
Born Peggy Ann Freeman to a working-class family in Detroit in 1945, she was discovered on the street as a teenager by British photographer David McCabe. Two years later she moved to New York, and just a few months later she was on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar, frequenting Warhol’s Factory, and signing an exclusive contract with the most sought-after fashion photographer of the time, Richard Avedon. Peggy became Donyaar Luna.[1945年、デトロイトの労働者階級の家庭に生まれたペギー・アン・フリーマンは、10代の頃、イギリス人写真家のデイヴィッド・マッケイブに街頭で見出されました。2年後、彼女はニューヨークに移り、そのわずか数か月後にはハーパーズ・バザーの表紙を飾り、ウォーホルのファクトリーに頻繁に出入りし、当時最も人気のあったファッション写真家リチャード・アヴェドンと専属契約を結びました。ペギーはドニヤール・ルナになりました。
But with the opportunities came obstacles. At the height of the African-American civil rights movement, advertisers for Harper’s Bazaar complained about Donyar Luna’s image and threatened to pull their ads. To escape the discrimination, Donyar moved to Europe, where she reincarnated as Peggy Anna Donyar Zazia Luna Freeman. According to American model Pat Cleveland, “It was an illusion, a kind of fantasy, that you go to a restaurant and people stop eating and stand up and applaud.”
Donyaar Luna wears a dress by Rudi Gernreich painted by Salvador Dalí in this 1966 portrait by William Claxton. William Claxton/HBO/Moritz Feed Dog Festival
In London in the mid-1960s, she became the first black model to appear on the cover of British Vogue, photographed by David Bayley, and collaborated with the Rolling Stones on the film Rock and Roll Circus. In Paris, she appeared in William Klein’s film Who Are You, Polly Maggoo, met Dalí, and worked with Paco Rabanne. Around that time, she was set to take part in Vogue’s The Great Fur Caravan, the most expensive fashion photoshoot of the time, but editor Diana Vreeland withdrew Luna at the last minute. When Avedon protested, Vreeland cruelly compared Donielle Luna to King Kong. “Veruschka, who was ultimately chosen, was very professional, but Luna would have been more impactful,” says Kramer. “Avedon was a civil rights activist, and if you look at his archives, you can see how hard he fought for her and how painful it was to see her rejected.”
In 1969, she played the role of Enotea in Federico Fellini’s Satyricon.
“Donihar Luna had other similar experiences, but she couldn’t tell them on film because she couldn’t find anyone to testify in front of the camera,” Jefferson says. “The editors of French Vogue wanted her on the cover, but they were turned down from above. After all, it was a US media outlet with influence even in Europe. It was all about the money, and they didn’t have the guts to argue.” These hardships and a terrible family tragedy led Luna to retreat further into a world of fantasy. She moved to Italy, where she made art, performed in avant-garde theater, and performed with Fellini. There she met her husband Luigi Cazzaniga, and had a daughter, Dream. Sadly, in 1979, 18 months after becoming a mother, Luna died of a drug overdose. She was 33.
With his daughter Dream Cazzaniga in 1977. Luigi Cazzaniga / HBO / Moritz Feed Dog Festival
Dream Cazzaniga, a sustainability consultant who now lives in France with her two daughters, was hesitant to talk about her experience losing her mother when she met the documentary production team, but that feeling disappeared. “They approached the project with great care and respect,” she says. “In fact, during the production, I felt very close to my mother’s atmosphere. Her strong determination pushed me to tell her true story. There was also light in her life. I’m proud that she didn’t let others define her, she didn’t accept the role that others tried to impose on her.”
With the exception of celebrity stylist Law Roach, who explicitly referenced Donyell Luna in his collaboration with American actress and singer Zendaya, fashion history has barely spoken about this pioneer. “Black women’s achievements are sometimes forgotten because they’re not valued,” Kramer says. “She was ahead of her time, but she was misunderstood professionally and personally. They didn’t know what to do with someone like her at the time.”
According to Jefferson, it’s important that Luna’s story is told to prevent the situation she experienced from ever happening again. “There’s an injustice that if more girls knew about her and saw herself represented, we would have a bigger group of black models by now,” she said. “What I’ve learned from this project is that Luna chose not to minimize or camouflage herself, and I hope that we can all be as brave as she was.”
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