“About Face” Body Image Benefit: America the Beautiful Movie

May 15, 2009 He’s baaaaaaaaaack! ‘Tell it like it is’ director Darryl Roberts of America The Beautiful is wrapping his last personal appearance on his U.S. screening tour to benefit two worthy Bay Area orgs promoting positive body image: About-Face.org (love their “don’t fall for the media circus” tagline) and Beyond Hunger (“freedom from the obsession with food and weight) And just in time for summer ‘swimsuit season’ when sensibility takes a backseat to ‘sexy/slim’ media surround sound.

I can’t begin to tell you how many tweens and teens I’ve overheard stressing out about their year-end splash fests and ‘graduation’ pool parties…not to mention all the self-critical body slams and strident high notes wafting from retail dressing rooms everywhere. I know, it’s ‘time eternal angst’ but never quite so amped…

If you didn’t catch the film last time when I wrote “See it. Support it.” or when I reviewed it and asked Dr. Robyn to add her expert voice, or when I interviewed Darryl directly, in this post, “An R-rated film you WANT your kids to see” then now’s the time to e-blitz it to all of your friends to sell out the screenings and support About Face & Beyond Hunger too!

“Does America have an unhealthy obsession with beauty?” As the kids might say, ‘duh!”

Come inoculate the teens against body shame, hearing the whys and hows behind the scenes that turn harm into hope and wounds into armor.

Darryl always has fresh stories and poignant tales from his globetrotting adventures that add new perspective and dimensions, as he whacks a few beauty beehives in grassroots endeavors for industry reform and policy driving initiatives.

Such as?

Accountability for the messages landing on kids: lobbying for insurance coverage of disordered eating, ditching unsafe chemicals in cosmetics, with the Search for the Cause campaign aligned with our friends at Teens Turning Green, and shining the spotlight on ways we CAN shift the mass media mindset leveraging the popularity of key celebs, like this post I wrote featuring Darryl’s “Open Letter to Oprah” to stop the yo-yo dieting with her gargantuan media clout.

Everyone has a role to play in this massive mindshift…

Yours is to show up…see the ATB film…tell your friends…

And get ready for the DVD coming soon (Shaping Youth will be using it for teen media literacy in our documentary film fest/house party style)

Meanwhile, here’s a recap of the trailer below, plus links to related posts on Shaping Youth (better yet, check out our entire ‘body image’ category and also Dr. Robyn, our ‘resident expert’ via her body image resource blog, KMA.)

You owe it to the females in your life to go see this one and impart the importance of deconstructing beauty myth 101 as part of their summer viewing pleasure! Enjoy!

America The Beautiful Benefit Screenings:

To Benefit About Face & Beyond Hunger

Includes Q&A with filmmaker Darryl Roberts

Two showings only, seating is limited, so buy tickets early!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 6:30pm
Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore Street, San Francisco (map)
(includes Q&A with filmmaker)
General admission: $21.50 (ages 12 and up)
CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS FOR SAN FRANCISCO SHOWING

Thursday, May 28, 2009 6:30pm
Rafael Film Center
1118 Fourth Street, San Rafael (map)
SPECIAL RECEPTION WITH THE DIRECTOR AFTER THE FILM (includes admission): $42
General admission: $21.50 (ages 12 and up)

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS FOR SAN RAFAEL SHOWING