Filmmaker: Joanna Rudnick
Year: 2014
Running Time: 31 minutes
Synopsis
From Emmy-nominated In The Family filmmaker Joanna Rudnick and Chicago’s Kartemquin Films comes a story about challenging norms and redefining beauty. On Beauty follows fashion photographer Rick Guidotti, who left the fashion world when he grew frustrated with having to work within the restrictive parameters of the industry’s standard of beauty. After a chance encounter with a young woman who had the genetic condition albinism, Rick re-focused his lens and uses it to challenge convention and redefine beauty with the help of two extraordinary women.
At the center of On Beauty are two of Rick’s photo subjects: Sarah and Jayne. Sarah left public school for home school in eighth grade because she was bullied so harshly for the Sturge-Weber birthmark on her face. Jayne lives in Eastern Africa where people with albinism are highly discriminated against and are sometimes even killed for their body parts. Rick’s photos challenge both mainstream media’s narrow scope of beauty and the dehumanizing black-bar convention of medical textbooks. On Beauty is part of his movement.
Festivals
2014 Chicago International Film Festival—Audience Choice Award
2014 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
2014 Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival
2014 DOC NYC