Ugly Beauty
darryl roberts wanted to make a documentary slamming the beauty industry. he ended up with a lot more than he expected.
2007-07-26
Sergio Mims
America The Beautiful premiered to sold out crowds at the AFI Dallas Film Festival, won the Audience Favorite Award at the Giffoini Children’s Film Festival in Los Angeles and has been selected for 19 others including The Durban, Maui, Provincetown and Roxbury Film festivals in August.
The film examines this country’s obsession with beauty and the youth culture mainly from the perspective of Gerren Taylor, who made national headlines when she started her career as a runway model at the age of 12. America chronicles the psychological and emotional toll she experiences trying to live up to the industry’s aesthetic standards.Roberts who started his career as a local radio personality, has established a career as a director, producer and writer in independent filmmaking as well as directing commercials and music videos in Europe. We wondered what he learned from this experience.
How long did it take you to make your film?
Exactly four years, 2 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 12 hours and 6 minutes.
That’s a long time. What were some of the challenges?
Money. There was a continuing process of raising money, shoot, run out of money, raise more money, shoot again and on it goes. And when you do a documentary you don’t have a script. So the finding of the story happens during the editing process. With 1,000 interviews and 400 hours of footage, that’s a little time consuming. Not to mention that when you’re shooting, the story takes you in different directions…. literally grows like a beast, right before your eyes.
There are some very painful and emotional moments you capture in your film involving Gerren and her mother. Did they have any second thoughts about being so open to you?
No they were pretty open. I think during the process there were a few things that her mother wouldn’t let her talk about because she was a minor. But it was a very interesting journey: everything that I was finding out about the industry was happening to Gerren in real time. She literally became a microcosm of the bigger problem.
How did you meet?
I was at a show at the first annual LA Fashion
Week. A girl came out on the runway that I thought was 20, and I heard someone remark that she was a
pre-teen. I happened to be standing next to a lady and asked her what she thought of that. She said "That's my daughter."
How did you convince them to participate in the film?
After Fashion Week, the LA Times did a story on Gerren and I was curious to see where this was heading. I'd seen the 10-year-olds on the Calvin Klein billboards in their underwear, but somehow this was more intriguing. I called Gerren's mom and asked her if I could follow them around, kind of chronicling their journey and she said, “Sure.”
What has been the reaction so far from people who appear in the film?
Gerren and her mother are the only people in the film who have seen it. When it premiered at the AFI Dallas festival her mother Michelle said she went into shock when she saw it. Gerren said it was painful to watch. I think that’s a normal reaction when you look at your life in living color.
What about the industry people who appear in the film? How did you get access and cooperation?
Basically by laying it all out on the table. I interviewed the editors-in-chief of several magazines -- called them up and said, "Look, I'm doing a documentary on America's unhealthy obsession with beauty and I've interviewed 200 high school girls and asked them if they felt beautiful and not one of them said yes. Are you aware that the images you're perpetuating in your magazine are damaging the self-esteem of young girls?”
To my surprise, they admitted that they knew. They said that beauty magazines are driven by one motive and that's profit. They then went into a diatribe about how it was ultimately the [responsibility] of the girls’ parents to tell them that they were beautiful.
Then most of them said, ‘Listen, I may get in trouble here, but as a woman, I support what you're doing, so I'll do the interview.’ I was able to capture industry professionals on tape admitting that it was all about the money. That's one of the awesome parts of the documentary -- the honesty from the industry.
Do you think things have gotten worse in terms of our obsession with beauty and image since you began making your film?
Things are definitely worse. Plastic surgery is on the rise. I think Plano, Texas is now the plastic surgery capital of the U.S. And eating disorders are rising even faster and young girls are feeling worse and worse about themselves. I have to tell you the whole thing is messed up.
What do you want the audience to leave with after seeing America The Beautiful?
I did the film to make a strong case that we’re all beautiful, exactly the way we are. And, if somehow you don’t believe that, it’s in your best interest to reconsider.
(Sergio Mims covers all things film from the city that works, Chicago.)
Photo of Gerren Taylor: Getty
Links:
America The Beautiful
More on Gerren Taylor
Gerren Taylor at AFI/Dallas on America The Beautiful: View Now
