Film on America’s Unhealthy Obsession With Beauty Set to Make World Premiere at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival
Chicago, IL (Akiit.com) – From Barbie Dolls to pop stars, America has an unquenchable thirst for physical perfection.
It’s this obsession with beauty and glamour that is the focus of America the Beautiful, making its world premiere this month. The film is scheduled to be screened, March 26 and March 28 in the international documentary category at the American Film Institute’s (AFI) Dallas International Film Festival.
America the Beautiful focuses on Gerren Taylor, a young model whose lanky appearance used to be a source for teasing by other kids, but is now her greatest asset. Over a two-year period the film follows Taylor as she transforms from an innocent 12-year-old to America’s next top supermodel.
Chicago Filmmaker Darryl Roberts ventures into the lives and mindsets of celebrities such as Paris Hilton, magazine editors, plastic surgeons, beauty experts and Jessica Simpson as he searches for the cause of America’s unhealthy obsession with beauty.
Beautiful will make you think, laugh and shake your head as Roberts divulges everything from the ingredients found in cosmetics to surprises about television’s top plastic surgeons.
“America is on a quest for physical perfection, fueled by the greed of a few companies that get proportionally richer as our self esteem tanks,” Roberts said. “The film shows where this stems from and how it is probably not in our best interest to buy into it.”
Roberts is writer, director and producer on the film. Executive producer is Michael Beach and producer and supervising editor is Kurt Engfehr.
Roberts is president of Sensory Overload Productions, based in Chicago, IL. His previous films include the highly acclaimed How U Like Me Now, a look at relationships in the 1990’s. Roberts’ career began at WKKC-FM in Chicago. He has served as host of WMAQ-TV’s Hollywood Hype and has directed some of Europe’s hottest commercials and music videos.
A native of suburban Detroit, Engfehr has edited for the Lifetime Network (The Ruby Wax Show), CBS (The Sports Illustrated for Kids Show) and several music videos. He served as senior editor for Michael Moore’s The Awful Truth (1999) and won an American Cinema Editors Award for his work on Bowling for Columbine. He also worked with Moore on Fahrenheit 9/11.
Beach has worked with many acclaimed directors, including James Cameron, Robert Altman and Tony Scott. Beach worked opposite Angela Bassett and Whitney Houston in Waiting to Exhale (1995) and played a cheating husband in 1997’s Soul Food. He has also acted on ER, in A Family Thing and independent film Asunder.
America the Beautiful, is a timely and relevant social documentary, seeming especially topical since 2 models recently died from eating disorders, one in Brazil, immediately after walking off the runway and the other in Spain. America the Beautiful, is currently making festival rounds before going into theatrical release.Â