Lena Greene is a director, animator and illustrator currently living in New York. In Monologue with Lauren Greenfield, Lena Greene directs an animated short to accompany an interview with Lauren Greenfield. The filmmaker and photographer Lauren Greenfield, best known for the documentaries Generation Wealth (2018) and The Queen of Versailles (2012), has been poking at the ugly underbelly of consumerism for more than 25 years. Through her unsparing lens, the latest incarnation of the American dream has been revealed in all its blingy, exploitative glory, particularly when it comes to its toll on women and girls. In an interview with Topic recorded in late November of 2018, Greenfield talks about the major themes running through her work, and what she calls "the ultimate cost, and degradation, of capitalism."

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Lena Greene "The Queen of Versailles is one of my favorite films for its depiction of delusion as it follows a family barely clinging onto their indulgent lifestyle during the 2008 financial crash. So, I was beyond excited when Topic approached me to direct their Monologue episode interview with its director, Lauren Greenfield. I found this collaboration to be especially fitting since our work deals with similar themes -- delusions of grandeur, aspiration, and ideas of success, always asking how these are materialized through women’s bodies.

While illustrating and animating Monologue With Lauren Greenfield, I wanted to hone in on hyperbolic motions, morphs, colors and transitions to further the excessive and demonic nature of capitalism that Lauren speaks so eloquently about in her voice over. I also used a very flat and cartoon-y aesthetic, which reminded me of being young and looking through old comic books full of idealized and exaggerated female figures I aspired to emulate one day. There’s a very faux glamorous aspect to my work - most of my characters wear heels or thigh highs, are larger than life and over the top, and it was so fun to be able to apply my favorite genre of camp to Monlogue. With production assistance from Augenblick Studios in Dumbo, the LG + LG collab was definitely one of my favorite projects to work on :) "