Pretty Ugly

Want to overcome the world's impossible expectations of beauty? Join Misfit Models - good lookers need not apply!

Pretty Ugly In the age of photoshop, the pressure on the ugly, wrinkled and pigeon-breasted has never been so great. But Del Keens, a self-confessed gargoyle and welfare-dependant, is here to turn the tables. After being scouted by an advertising photographer and fronting major campaigns by Levi's and Calvin Klein, he's forming his own modelling agency - good-lookers need not apply. But is this a liberating counter concept? Or simply coquetry to reaffirm our ideal of beauty?
"Try to go in a pin-up pose", a photographer calls out to a balding, pot-bellied man wearing nothing but black spandex hotpants and an absurd gold boob-tube. "No, your bum looks great", another is reassured. They are posing for the camera not - as might be expected - in some cheaply fabricated BDSM dungeon, but in a professional studio, on a professional shoot, as professional models. Del started up his new 'ugly' model agency with high hopes that the advertising industry is ready to rethink its emphasis on wall-to-wall beauty.

"You either stay at home and hide, or you come out of your shell and say, 'Look at me, world!', like I have." With 150 hopefuls already on the books, Del is optimistic that there will be more work to come. With a healthy dose of self-effacing humour, he leads us through a cosmos of imperfection, ill-proportion, and irregularity. "My biggest dream is to find someone as bad-looking as me. But that's going to be a tall order."

As we watch Del bolster his fledglings' confidence, another question looms. Are Del and his companions a serious movement towards greater authenticity? Or simply a variety act? "If I wanted a freak show, I'd call it 'freak show'. And as the agency gets going there's no shortage of imperfect applicants but the work is not flooding in. Is the world really ready to turn the tables on the Photoshop look - or will Del's models only ever in fact be in demand for occasional gimmickry - when some creative wants to make fun of an ugly person? Entertaining and thought provoking.

FULL SYNOPSIS

The Producers


Jan Tenhaven is an award-winning writer and director of documentaries and non-fiction television programmes. He has a passion for exploring the stories of most fascinating people in our society and telling their personal stories in a respectful and unique way. Jan learned his craft through roles at a number of television station as a writer, reporter, and short documentary filmmaker.

Making The Film


Gebreuder Beetz Filmproduktion has produced more than 120 high-quality documentaries and documentary films for the international market and is, according to branch leader “Realscreen”, one of the 100 most important independent production companies worldwide. The company’s productions regularly screen in the competitions of all international A-festivals and have won multiple respected awards.

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