LA Times - Our Bodies Beautiful

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Our bodies beautiful

A filmmaker intrigued by fashion ideals meets a child about to confront them.

By Elizabeth Kaye McCall, Special to The Times

THEIR lives came together as surely as if it had been scripted — a 12-year-old modeling sensation on the verge of a literal "trip to fame" and a documentary filmmaker on a quest to explore America's obsession with an idealized, superficial beauty.

Four years ago, Darryl Roberts attended L.A. Fashion Week to shoot some footage for his documentary "America the Beautiful," which premiered in March at AFI Dallas International Film Festival and is slated to screen Thursday at the youth-oriented Giffoni Hollywood Film Festival. On a tip from designer Lotta Stensson, Roberts made a point of looking for a 12-year-old model named Gerren, who was becoming the talk of the fashion industry.

When Gerren was thrust onto the runway in a wedding gown that, in her rush, a dresser had put on the young model backward, a story line for Roberts' documentary began to emerge. Trying to navigate the runway, Gerren tripped twice on the gown's 20-foot-long train. Finally carrying it to finish her walk, she tried to stay composed as the audience, belatedly realizing her distress, gave her a standing ovation. Backstage, the tears flowed but Gerren had won the hearts of all attending.

"I didn't think too much about it," Roberts says. "About six weeks later, a friend called and said, 'Remember that model girl you were talking about? She's on the cover of the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times.' " Intrigued, Roberts called Gerren's mother, whom he'd met at the show, to see where things were heading. He spent the next two years following Gerren, whose career became central to his 110-minute documentary — an alternately serious and humorous look at what Americans call beauty.

Roberts says he came up with the idea for "America the Beautiful" after seeing a news report about a photographer who murdered a beautiful model because "if he couldn't have her, nobody could." After reading about a similar killing in Philadelphia, he began thinking about the obsessive extremes people go to in the quest to attain or possess beauty. Extremes that Roberts, who produced the independent film "How U Like Me Now?" on relationships in the '90s, admits to knowing about firsthand: He once bought two Jaguars so a beautiful woman he wanted to impress could choose her favorite color for their date.

"That was the impetus to send me on this journey, to find out why we are so obsessed with beauty," he says.

As writer, director, producer and narrator for "America the Beautiful," Roberts covers such topics as plastic surgery (even on animals), a female casino employee who was fired for not wearing makeup and thought-provoking parallels between women's monumental gains in society and society's offsetting emphasis on current ideals of beauty and other notions of femininity. The question he's ultimately getting at is whether the preponderance of Americans have become so swayed by appearances that the old adage that true beauty comes from within no longer rings true.

But at the heart of "America the Beautiful" is Gerren, a teen model who got labeled "obese" by the fashion industry at age 14 — as a 6-foot size 4. With a résumé that includes modeling for international designers such as Roberto Cavalli, Richard Tyler, Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, Nicole Miller and Catherine Malandrino, Gerren went head to head with an industry obsessed with thinness. She was measured in London with 96-centimeter (37.8 inches) hips and told she had to be 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) or under to model in Paris. (Then as now, she weighs 130 pounds.) Even Gerren's mountains of supermodel media coverage — including appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Entertainment Tonight" and "Extra" — couldn't get her past the power of the tape measure.

"When I first got into the business I was 12. I didn't know anything about what was happening … anorexia, bulimia and all that stuff," says Gerren, now 16, as she sits in a sundress and heels at Zen Zoo Tea Café on San Vicente Boulevard, sipping on an herbal chai drink. The conversation turns to models who've recently died from eating disorders. "I have my own mind, but it's hard not to fall into that trap and be one of them … [but] I just said, 'It's not worth my life.' "

When she was first called obese, Gerren was so upset, she didn't even tell her mother. Now, though, she has more perspective. "If you're a celebrity they will fit anything for you. Beyoncé is a big, beautiful woman. She's curved. If she says [to a designer], 'I want to do your show,' they will find somebody to fit her," says Gerren, who is still a size 4.

A look back

"WHEN I started shooting Gerren, I was living in Los Angeles," says Roberts, now based in Chicago. "I would follow her around almost every day. Initially, she was really shy and didn't talk much, but as time went on, she opened up and became this personable kid."

By the time Kurt Engfehr ("Bowling for Columbine," "Fahrenheit 9/11") came on as co-producer and supervising editor, Roberts had plenty of fodder on how society's beauty obsession was being played out. "With Gerren, you get to see what's being done. If Gerren was a size 2-4 and she's too big … where do 80%, 90% of all women in society fit in?" Roberts asks.

Gerren, who uses mother Michele Gerren's last name as her given name, originally modeled as Gerren Taylor — a surname coined by her first modeling agency. Now with Elite Model Management, she's simply known as Gerren. "I prefer acting more than modeling now," says the teen, who is taking part in an upcoming reality series about black middle-class family life for BET called "Baldwin Hills." "When I model, I kind of have an alter ego. It's kind of the same with acting," Gerren says.

But the Gerren in "America the Beautiful" is humanly candid — right down to a fight with her mother, who wouldn't let her wear a padded bra to school.

Seeing the film's first screening in Dallas last month was "a shock," says Gerren. "There was a lot of stuff I forgot. There was footage of me when I was 12. It was kind of funny, like me playing with Barbies." It also brought back the difficult times, as when she was called obese. "I forgot how low my self-esteem got, how I felt about myself back then. I started being self-conscious. I thought I had stretch marks." The film shows a different reality. "When I was thinking I was big, I was a stick!"

Because of her experiences, Gerren asked Roberts to take "America the Beautiful" to the Giffoni Hollywood Film Festival, whose participants and jurors are between 9 and 17. "I just want something where people my age can see the movie and see how they react to it," says Gerren.

Though Giffoni is essentially closed to the public, Roberts saw the festival as a good fit. "Young girls are the ones being hardest hit with this standard of beauty phenomenon," says Roberts, who is in talks to show his film at AFI Los Angeles and hopes eventually to find a distributor.

Giffoni coordinator Tracey Arnold says she watched the documentary with her daughters before deciding to include it. "I found it to be really captivating. We should not be pressured by advertising companies or cosmetic industries to define beauty in such a limited way. Who is to say what beauty is? Who is given that privilege?"

Gerren has come to see that for herself. "We can get the hair extensions, the fake nails and makeup, and all that, but the real person's on the inside," says the teen, who balances her career pursuits with volleyball competitions across the country (she's a strong middle blocker for Manhattan Beach's Sunshine Volleyball Club), school and church. "If you have a great personality and can just be yourself, you're beautiful. If you think you're the bomb, you are the bomb."

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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

America the Beautiful, My Word

I just went to a film screening at the first AFI Dallas Film Festival, for a documentary film called America the Beautiful by Darryl Roberts. The film centered around the burgeoning culture of beauty in America, it's influence on world culture, and the dangers it presents to young women, and it's influence on society at large. The film was one part statistics and one part heart. The film's main character Gerren, is a 6 foot tall, beautiful supermodel. As she walks confidently down the runway atop a Hollywood hotel among the rich and famous, one's eyes can't help but be drawn to her. As she makes her turn to walk away and the camera pans and zooms focusing on her curves as she strides away, you have nowhere else to look. When the filmmaker and narrator reveals that this beautiful woman is only 12 years old, you are shocked. That shock will keep your eyes and mind glued to the screen for the rest of the film.

I hope that you are able to see this film soon"

Anton Seim

Independent Filmmaker, Texas

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AFI documentary 'America the Beautiful' enlightens and entertains. Samantha Urban, Associate Entertainment Editor, surban@smu.edu. Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Entertainment

"America the Beautiful," written, directed, narrated and produced by Darryl Roberts, is one of the most important documentary films of this decade.

In a society where "celebutantes" like Paris Hilton dominate newsstands and models who weigh less than 90 pounds die from malnutrition, female body image is one of the more dire problems facing today's society. In "America the Beautiful," Darryl Roberts illuminates the issue by covering every base he can think of. Child models, plastic surgery, celebrity worship, airbrushed advertising, dangerous cosmetics - no rock is left unturned.

Roberts, inspired by the documentary style of Michael Moore, hired a crack team to help him put the film together. The executive producer is Michael Beach, who has worked with many acclaimed directors, including James Cameron, Robert Altman and Tony Scott. The film's supervising editor is Kurt Engfehr, who actually worked with Michael Moore on "Bowling for Columbine" and "Farenheight 9/11."

What is astounding about "America the Beautiful" is how affecting the film is. After seeing it, you'll want to make sure every one you know sees it as well - and not just women. Roberts includes the male gender in his documentary as well, interviewing them for commentary and even spending a few minutes on male body image (an issue that one of the film's other producers plans to explore further in a film of his own).

Another impressive aspect of the film is its timeliness. With Brazilian models dropping like flies, Nicole Richie looking thinner every day, and the rate of plastic surgery constantly on the rise (with the clientele getting younger and younger), America needs a film like this.

Roberts even addresses the popular Dove campaign ads, particularly the one in which an ordinary woman is transformed into a goddess on a billboard using a team of stylists and Adobe Photoshop. As the ad plays within the film, Roberts good-naturedly comments he set out to make a film that would enlighten women on the unrealistic expectations that advertisements set for women, but Dove beat him to it.

Much of "America the Beautiful" documents the life of Gerren Taylor, a 12-year-old runway model. It's unsettling to watch Taylor's meteoric rise to fame, even though the legal age for runway modeling is 14 here in the United States.

Even more disturbing is Taylor's self image once she doesn't get called for as many jobs as she used to, thanks in part to her overbearing stage mother. Taylor refers to herself as ugly, hinging her opinion of herself on fashion designers and modeling agents.

"America the Beautiful" is not for the faint of heart. Many scenes, particularly the ones focusing on plastic surgery, are sickening and difficult to watch. The lengths to which some women will go to become and stay beautiful makes your average crash diet look like child's play.

Some scenes will infuriate viewers, like the ones in which Roberts exposes doctors who call themselves "plastic surgeons" as mere doctors who have taken a one-day course in plastic surgery and have only practiced procedures on tomatoes. The practice is more common than you think. Of the doctors on the television show "Dr. 90210," only one was an accredited plastic surgeon. The others are regular doctors or OB-GYNs who have attended a short plastic surgery workshop.

Most educational were the scenes focusing on other cultures. "Vagina Monologues" author Eve Ensler discusses her time spent in African countries where negative body image simply doesn't exist. A Harvard professor discusses her time spent in foreign countries before and after said countries got television and the profound effect that small change had on body image in those countries.

Overall, Roberts has crafted a documentary that exposes America for what it is: beauty obsessed. The movie is touring film festivals right now, but Roberts hopes for a theatrical release as soon as possible. "America the Beautiful" is funny, shocking and enlightening and is important enough to merit as many people seeing it as possible.

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Monday, March 19, 2007

America The Beautiful Forces Look in the Mirror

Film on America's Unhealthy Obsession With Beauty Set to Make World Premiere at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival.

Chicago, IL (BlackNews.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. Exclusive Interview with 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.

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Friday, March 30, 2007

Actor's Corner: Michael Beach, AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

What is pretty? Who looks good? Who are we trying to please when we scrutinize ourselves in the mirror? Darryl Roberts' documentary AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL (7:15 p.m., March 26 @ Magnolia and again at 10 p.m. on March 28) poses the big and intimate questions about the assault the beauty industry makes on the female psyche on a day-to day basis. Actor Michael Beach steps behind the camera to support Roberts' film and mission after a career with successes on the big screen (from Short Cuts to Waiting to Exhale) to television (E.R. and Third Watch).

Q: After a decade of constantly being on screen or on TV, why become a producer now, and why executive produce a documentary about the psychological abuse of the beauty industry for your first time in that role?

A: Hard as it may seem, I've been on TV and film screens for over two decades now. But I decided to become one of the executive producers for this film because Darryl Roberts, the director, came to me with such a strong idea and some interesting footage. He had an idea but wasn't sure what direction to take it in yet. Of course, it made the rounds about which specific direction it should take but he always knew he wanted to investigate the problem that America had with our images of beauty. That was very interesting to me. And when I saw the footage of Gerren and a couple of other little girls, I thought immediately that it should center around what this "hard sell" was doing to young girls. Mainly because I have three daughters. We talked a little more and I was in. I never thought about this being my first time behind the camera or anything like that. I just thought that it was a strong subject and something that would be interesting to examine.

Q: Did you come into this project having a strong personal opinion about the beauty industry and its effect on the women in our country?

A: I've always thought that this country had an unhealthy obsession with the idea of beauty but have never actively done anything about it. Until now, I guess.

Q: After this experience, do you have a different appreciation of what it takes to get the cameras rolling?

A: Well, making a documentary is very different from making a narrative film. I've made a couple of short narrative films and am about to make a feature-length film. Documentaries are, or seem to be, primarily created in the editing room. Even though you have a strong idea about your subject from the beginning, things start coming together as you start editing. Then you start to realize that if you could get an interview with this type of specialist or someone from this line of work or someone with this point of view it would really help your piece. It starts to make sense and gain shape and come to life the more you edit. But Darryl did so much of that work. It really is his film. I just helped him out. But I definitely have an appreciation for the patience and tenacity it takes. Darryl did a hell of a job.

Q: Tyra Banks - Groundbreaking influence on young women who should be celebrated or dense self-promoting ex-model leading girls like Gerren down the wrong path?

A: I think Tyra Banks is continuing her career and trying to hold the industry that made her famous to a higher standard than they had when she was coming up. She knows so many inside details and I think that trying to take the industry down is useless. She seems to be letting the average person get a glimpse behind The Wizard's curtain and allowing everyone to see that none of these people are perfect. She has her own personal flair in the way she does it and that's okay with me. She has earned the right.

Q: After working on this project, do you watch commercials and look at ads differently?

A: Honestly, I don't watch much TV anymore. I have come very close to cutting it out of my life entirely. And the couple of shows I do watch are TiVoed anyway. So no commercials for me!

Q: Finally, could the French ever convince you that you weren't good looking?

A: Nothing against the French but I don't really listen to anything they say or do. So the answer would be no.

By John Wildman, Staff Writer

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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

AFI Dallas - He Done Good

I went to the screening of the documentary America the Beautiful last night at the Magnolia Theater for the AFI DALLAS International Film Festival. My wonderful friend Steve accompanied me and we had a wonderful time. It was a bit chaotic upon arrival due to the mass of people in the lobby, drinking and mingling. Once in the actual theater, there were not enough seats. I purchased my tickets about 3 weeks ago so I had a big question mark in my head. It turns out that some volunteers and workers fancied themselves a few seats and were told, "No, No - gotta get up." Thank goodness b/c If I had not been able to sit down, I would have raised some hell.

Any whoozy, finally, we were seated and before the film started, the director Darryl Roberts, spoke briefly. I forgot my camera and the one on my cell is not so good so no pics - sorry! Ok, moving on, I loved the film.

At its narrative core, America the Beautiful focuses on Gerren Taylor, a very young girl caught up in the world of high fashion. Along the way, director Darryl Roberts crafts a thought-provoking, funny, and even sad look into the way our American society dictates--and then contradicts-- what is "attractive." From the messages perpetuated by corporate advertising to the fatal chemical components of cosmetics, no topic is safe from examination.

I loved the way Roberts was able to weave Gerren's story with how the beauty and fashion industry affect what our culture values as beautiful and worthy.

The film was also quite funny at times. One of my favorite scenes was when Gerren was in Paris, and a rather expressive agent tried to tell her she needed to lose weight. Her English was not so good so she used body language. She sucked in her cheeks and stood tall, then slouched, stood tall, then slouched saying, "...more...this." Gerren is like 6 feet tall and a size 4 if not smaller. The fashion industry is great, no? Another highlight was commentary by Vagina Monologues writer Eve Ensler. That lady is freakin' hilarious and somehow so poignant.

You have to see this film. And when you do see it, you will understand what I mean by saying, "Revlon, tsk tsk. Shame on you!"