America the Beautiful 2007

Early in his narration of America The Beautiful, the film’s director Darryl Roberts confesses that several years ago he broke up with this gorgeous, brilliant and altogether engaging girlfriend so he could find someone even more beautiful, and still wondered what prompted him to do such a stupid and shallow thing.

In an attempt to find answers, the Chicago-based first-time filmmaker got out his camera and embarked upon a nationwide investigation of America’s obsession with an unattainable standard of beauty that’s propagated by media and retailers who profit from selling products to people--well, mostly to women--who constantly struggle to improve their appearance and self esteem, and the impact the beauty trap has on our lives.

We are, concludes Roberts, victims of mind set manipulations that would have us be rail thin, light-skinned, eternally young and always meticulously groomed to replicate the airbrushed images we see on billboards and magazine covers. Hunt lets us see just how impossible it is to become the billboard by showing us step by step what photo editors do to digitally makeover the face of a beautiful makeup-free model into the image we see in the ad. The point is that nobody naturally looks that perfect.

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