Docuweeks 2012 Shorts Program

Beauty CULTure
Director: Lauren Greenfield
Producers: Frank Evers, Shanah Blevins
Executive Producer: Frank Evers
Evergreen Pictures
31 min. USA/France

Beauty CULTure explores how feminine beauty is defined and revered, and the consequences for female body image. Through an examination of the photography industry and iconic fashion images, the film investigates our age-old obsession with beauty, its biological origins, and the role of the media and technology in narrowing its definition with ubiquitous imagery. Fashion photographers, avant-garde artists, celebrated models, child pageant stars, body builders, teenagers, and intellectuals engage in a provocative dialogue about the "beauty contest" of modern life.

Kings Point
Director/Producer: Sari Gilman
Producers: Jedd Wider, Todd Wider
Co-Producer: Susannah Ludwig
Kings Point Documentary/Wider Film Projects
31 min. USA

Director Sari Gilman tells the stories of five seniors living in a typical American retirement resort––men and women who came to Florida decades ago with their spouses by their sides and their health intact, and now find themselves grappling with love, loss, and the prospect of dying alone. A bittersweet look at our national obsession with self-reliance, Kings Point explores the dynamic tension between living and aging––between our desire for independence and our need for community––and underscores our powerful ambivalence toward growing old.