TEXAS PREMIERE + Part of this year’s Where I Belong Shorts

A pop culture essay film on the makeover movies we grew up loving—and all the ways they taught us that we needed to fix ourselves.
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. Why has this trope continued to capture our imaginations? And what has it taught us about ourselves? Featuring clips from nearly a hundred films, MAKEOVER MOVIE immerses us in the candy-colored, kinetic, and kaleidoscopic world of the makeover montage. Alongside these iconic images, the director and her friends—all women of color and/or queer women—share personal reflections on the racialized, heteronormative, and contradictory beauty standards at the core of the movie makeover.

DIRECTOR: Sue Ding

LENGTH: 19 minutes

LANGUAGES:  English

COUNTRY: United States

GENRE: Documentary Short