Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Issue Review – Awesome, Striking, A Must See

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Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film

Published on Thursday, 26 June 2025 12:26

Written by Janet Walker

Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell's Swimsuit Issue, from EUE Documentaries, brings to the screen the story of the artistic pioneer behind the brilliance that thawed the winter chill each February with the ultra-famous Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

What few knew is the pioneer behind the most profitable magazine in the Time Life portfolio, was a young artistic, journalism graduate, Jule Campbell, with knack for finding the right clothes, and in the early days the right location to highlight simple sporty concepts.

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Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell's Swimsuit Issue is a tribute to Jule Campbell, and her 32-year tenure as founding editor of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. When we meet her is 95, still mentally acute, with a house full of memories, and a daughter dedicated to preserving her mother's contribution to pop culture, and more crediting with changing the lives of countless women who would accompany her on these famous photo shoots.

Jule Campbell still has many of her youthful features, her hair may have lost its natural color, and she isn't as energetic as we find she once was, but the memories as she walks viewers through her life, the ups and downs of a magazine political structure, her very full life and of course, how she ended up helming the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition and launching mogul models and a mega-franchise.

There is not a man of a certain age who doesn't remember at least one S.I. Swimsuit cover. Was it Cheryl? Christie? Elle? Paulina?  Roshumba? Or Tyra? Even by their first names, memories of days gone by and the covers that could melt the February freeze quickly with the images of sun-kissed beaches, white sands, turquoise seas, exotic locals, decorated with the finely-toned all-American girl.

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As we walk through the history behind the making of the what began as a few pages and continued to grow into its own single profitable issue, 70, 80, 90, 140 pages, we understand the drive, dedication and preparation that went into each of these issues. Designers new in the swimsuit or resort wear niche with one call from Jule, and their brand would skyrocket.

She, as the documentary explains, was instrumental in have the designers featured along side the names of the models and location. She believed everyone should receive credit for their work, no matter if it were the swimsuit designer, the models, the photographer, even the locals.

We also hear from the women that Jule discovered and as we travel through time, we meet them then, and some return for the documentary. The documentary features photo shoots with Kim Alexis, Carol Alt, Tyra Banks, Christie Brinkley, MJ Day, Kathy Ireland, Elle Macpherson, Paulina Porizkova, Roshumba Williams, Stacey Williams, and Cheryl Tiegs with behind the scenes stories of the shoot or the ad lib photo that became the cover.

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The documentary shows another side of each of these women, and how they credited Jule with more than catapulting them into the stratosphere, but how she made the shoots more safe and comfortable, and gave them motherly advice like, save your pennies, and think beyond modeling.

And as each of these women featured are brand ambassadors of their own business, her advice stuck. The documentary also travels into the dark side of Sports Illustrated and how one day, Jule Campbell was fighting for her job, the old editor was out and the new one wanted change, and even as Jule created the most profitable and subsequently stand-alone brand in the catalogue she was out also.

We also see how the S.I. brand has moved to be more inclusive. Jule broke the race barrier decades before any person considered have a black model on the cover.

By the end of the documentary we also see where S.I. is heading.  Sports Illustrated has always been about the athletic build, in females and males, and especially in the swimsuit issue, as it has increased the boundaries of inclusivity some models portrayed do not represent the athletic build, not to say that every female athlete is tall, lean, with toned and defined muscles, some female athletes are thick, and muscular, and still toned, and yet when there is an obvious appearance of unfitness, which has become part of the new S.I. brand, it moves away from the tradition of healthy sports bodies.

Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell Swimsuit Issue presents a fair and balanced portrait of an innovative, and determined woman in a man's world, determined to succeed.  It is nostalgic, provides background into pop-culture, beautiful locations, and behind the scenes information on the locations, shoots, the models, the beachwear. It is an escape of the senses. A must see.

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Country: U.S.

Language: English.

Runtime: 107 minutes.

Director: Jill Campbell.

Producer: Jill Campbell, Jonathan Gray, Robert J. Lyons.

Executive Producer: Shron Cooney Shuttleworth.

Consulting Producer: Veronique Bernard, Graham Campbell, Hannah Campbell.

Featuring: Kim Alexis, Carol Alt, Tyra Banks, Christie Brinkley, Jule Campbell, MJ Day, Kathy Ireland, Elle Macpherson, Paulina Porizkova, Roshumba Williams, Stacey Williams, Cheryl Tiegs, Walter Iooss.

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has completed the non-fiction narrative, "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and is available on Amazon. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a former member of the International Federation of Journalists.