America the Beautiful

Director Darryl Roberts. USA, 2007, 110 mins.
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.

Aisha Tyler on beauty: "I think it was a hindrance when I first started doing comedy because it was very hard to be taken seriously as a comedian, because when I got up on stage it was, like, Girl, what's she going to talk about? She should be a model. She doesn't have anything to say. So I would really dress down and wear combat boots and baggy clothes and no makeup because I wanted people to hear what I had to say. So I think my looks worked against me for a long time in terms of being credible - of being taken seriously - of having my ideas seen as important. Looks fade very quickly and in the end it's what you have going on inside that's important."