From the media to the network, the world around us continually offers us rather standardized models of beauty, which define "beauty" on the basis of compliance with certain canons. A way of thinking that is questioned by On Beauty, a documentary just released in American theaters and which invites us to challenge beliefs and prejudices and to grasp beauty in diversity.
TikTok's viral trick to preserve avocado is dangerous
From the media to the network, the world around us constantly offers us rather standardized models of beauty, which define "beauty" on the basis of compliance with certain canons. A way of thinking that is questioned by On Beauty, a documentary released in American cinemas and which invites us to to challenge beliefs and prejudices and to grasp beauty in diversity.
Made by the director and producer Joanna Rudnick, nominated for an Emmy in 2008 for In the family, On beauty is a 31-minute documentary that has already garnered several awards in the United States.
The film follows a former fashion photographer, Rick Guidotti, In its journey in search of the most authentic beauty: a path that leads him to travel the length and breadth of the United States and even to reach Kenya, and which is made up of “special” encounters and portraits. The subjects chosen by Rick, in fact, are "different" people, suffering from rare and visible pathologies, of which Guidotti tries to capture the intimate beauty, so that others can finally see them with eyes not clouded by prejudices.
At the end of the nineties, after having photographed the most popular top models on the planet for years, Guidotti decided to abandon the world of catwalks: the restrictive canons of beauty seemed to enclose his creativity, preventing him from expressing himself as he would have liked and making him dissatisfaction and frustration. After a chance encounter with a young albino woman, here's the idea that revolutionized his career: challenge conventions and redefine the very concept of beauty, guiding the viewer to discover the value of diversity.
At first Guidotti founded an association, Positive Exposure, to promote a new attitude towards “visible” pathologies, trying to focus on people, not their diseases. Each of his photos comes from desire associate each pathology with a face in flesh and blood, a proper name, dreams and desires, in order to make the medical lexicon less arid and more human and promote acceptance and inclusion.
Subsequently, from the meeting with the director Joanna Rudnick the idea was born of making a documentary based on the same values. For five years, covering two continents and thousands of kilometers, Guidotti has portrayed many “different” people, trying to capture their truest face, under the watchful gaze of Rudnick's camera.
"Rick has incredible filters, able to cut out all the negativity, stigma, prejudice and isolation that usually accompany the difference." - He told about it Johanna Rudnick - "By doing so, he gives us the space, permission and tools to see people as he sees them and how they want to be seen, whether it's a supermodel, at the beginning of his career, or traits of a child with a genetic syndrome. "
Among the many faces present in the documentary, those of Sarah, a girl suffering from Sturge-Weber syndrome, which caused a big red birthmark on her face, and that of Jayne, a young African albino. Their stories speak of rejection, abandonment, discrimination and violence, but also of a lot of courage.
SarahIn addition to having undergone numerous surgeries over the years, she was bullied because of her physical appearance and chose to drop out of eighth grade school to receive lessons at home. Jayneinstead, who lives in East Africa, was abandoned as a child by her parents and has to fight every day against the discrimination and violence that affect those who, like her, are affected by albinism.
Their smiles, as well as the looks full of hope and joy of all the protagonists of On Beauty, are an invitation not to stop and see the existence of a genetic condition or a disease that makes these people "different", but to go further, stripping ourselves of mistrust and prejudice.
In search of a beauty that is perhaps a little less evident, but more authentic.
Lisa Vagnozzi
Photo Credits: On Beauty
READ also
National Geographic 2015: the winning photos of the Traveler Photo Contest
Windows of the World: the windows of the world photographed by Andre Vicente Goncalves
Street Art: Auckland's electrical and telephone booths are transformed into works of art
