COMMERCIAL WORK

The History of the Carabiner - Nikon
Waterbear Network

Official Selection

Title of Piece:	The History of the Carabiner
Client/Brand:	Nikon
Production Company:	Waterbear Network
Director(s):	Gianna Mazzeo
Producer(s):	Alexia LaFeuille
Agency:	-
DoP:	Gianna Mazzeo
Instagram Tag:	@gianna_pizzza
Short Synopsis:	A tongue-in-cheek, historical documentary / fashion film hybrid that takes viewers on a journey through queer history to trace the origins of the carabiner as a lesbian symbol. The carabiner is somewhat of a universal symbol for lesbians and queer people across the globe. If you didn't already know about it, you'll start to see it everywhere now - I promise. As we all know, queer history hasn't been well documented and is often overlooked, so I wanted to create a video work that enshrines the carabiner as an important flag of self-expression and community. The documentary encompasses my personal experiences as a queer person; spoken stories I've come across from older members of the community; as well as some archival research I've conducted into the history of how this 'silly little piece of metal' came to be such a uniting and symbolic accessory for the LGBTQIA+ community. I hope that this work is fun and relatable for queer and lesbian people, but also an informative audio-visual documentation that acts as a tangible reference of queer history that exceeds the spoken-word history that we have come to normalise within our community.