Susan Schulz

In a society where female body image is one of the more dire problems facing today's society, this film illuminates the issue by covering every base: child models, plastic surgery, celebrity worship, airbrushed advertising, and dangerous cosmetics.

The United States of America is one of the wealthiest nations on the planet with many opportunities for its citizens. In 2004 alone, Americans spent $12.4 billion (yes, billion!) on cosmetic surgery. With such an abundance of wealth, why are Americans so discontent? Consuming almost 40,000 media messages a year, young Americans are told that unless you look like a supermodel or a rock star, you’re not good enough for anyone to love. In AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL, filmmaker Darryl Roberts goes on a 5 year journey and illustrates how these increasingly unattainable images contribute greatly to the rise in low self-esteem, body dismorphia, and eating disorders for young women and girls who also happen to be the beauty industry's largest consumers. With appearances by Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, and Anthony Kiedis, the film reveals that too much television and easy access to plastic surgery are conventional answers, but they do not fully explain this national psychosis.

Documentary provocateur Darryl Roberts examines how the national obsession with image has affected our ideas of what constitutes a healthy weight.

Is Weight gain the biggest health crisis in America or is it weight loss? With our collective waistline expanding faster than ever, dieting has now become a national obsession. In what once was purely a woman's issue, more and more men are being targeted by advertisers to diet or bulk up to resemble the Adonis images on the cover of men's magazines. Award-winning filmmaker Darryl Roberts' provocative new documentary examines America's dieting craze and use of BMI. Roberts' witty exploration of America's unhealthy obsession with dieting and our current obesity crisis takes us on a journey through his pitfalls and triumphs with his own health and into the lives of industry leaders and icons such as Deepak Chopra, Arch Bishop Timothy Dolan and Supermodel Beverly Johnson.