MAKEOVER MOVIE
Directed by Sue Ding
Produced by Sue Ding
United States | English | 18' | Documentary
For more than a hundred years, movie makeovers have promised audiences that with a little help, any ugly duckling can transform into the belle of the ball. Featuring clips from nearly a hundred films, MAKEOVER MOVIE immerses us in the candy-colored and kinetic world of the makeover montage. Alongside these iconic images, women of color and queer women reflect on the racialized, heteronormative, and contradictory beauty standards at the core of the movie makeover.
Powerhouse director Sue Ding comes through with another indelible film that humorously pokes a gigantic hole in the system of Hollywood power. Standards of beauty, male gaze, Hollywood's embrace of whiteness – it’s all fair game for Ding, who ingeniously invites us into private conversations among her and her friends about makeovers in movies and how Hollywood tells women they aren’t enough. Using the make-over montage against itself, the film is both pop art and political cinema, asking us whether we really want to buy what Hollywood is selling. This film is an absolute must see. — Vincent DeLuca, Programmer
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