The Codes of Gender

Arguing that advertising not only sells things, but also ideas about the world, media scholar Sut Jhally offers a blistering analysis of commercial culture's inability to let go of reactionary gender representations. Jhally's starting point is the breakthrough work of the late sociologist Erving Goffman, whose 1959 book The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life prefigured the growing field of performance studies. Jhally applies Goffman's analysis of the body in print advertising to hundreds of print ads today, uncovering an astonishing pattern of regressive and destructive gender codes. By looking beyond advertising as a medium that simply sells products, and beyond analyses of gender that tend to focus on either biology or objectification, The Codes of Gender offers important insights into the social construction of masculinity and femininity, the relationship between gender and power, and the everyday performance of cultural norms.

2010-10-13 | en

American Royalty

The American Royalty docuseries showcases an in-depth perspective of the Miss America Pageant. Experience the hundred year history, influence, controversy, and evolution of this iconic institution.

2022-02-22 | en

Always Beautiful

Narratives are tales that unintentionally define our personality. In the case of women, being beautiful is the only way. The film shows how we learn to be obsessed by the visual itself, and how the highest compliment to a woman is always beauty.

2019-07-01 | en

Screen Actors

This short film takes a look at the off-screen personas of screen actors. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

1950-05-13 | en

In Search of Wabi Sabi with Marcel Theroux

Marcel Theroux travels across Japan in an attempt to understand Wabi Sabi, a theory of Japanese aesthetics in which imperfection and transience are the touchstone of beauty.

2009-03-16 | en

Les Fleurs

A nude woman relaxing on a bed to Minnie Riperton's song Les Fleurs is exited by its chorus. Director Saam Farahmand heats up the body hair debate.

2014-05-06 | en

Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film

An intimate portrait of the superb actress Gena Rowlands, icon of independent cinema. Together with her husband, legendary director John Cassavetes (1929-89), she lived an unusual life beyond the dream factory, a life in which reality and fiction were so perfectly intertwined that it made possible films that still today seem incredibly real.

2019-06-05 | de

Cool Critter

A frustrated Hollywood actress is doing an unusual “part-time job.”

2019-08-08 | en

Beauty of Fatherland

The documentary observes two matriarchs - Tiina Jantson governs the beauty contest empire in Estonia; Anne Eenpanu leads the activities of "Home Daughters" - a girls' corps of Estonian Defence League. The film's main characters and their activities are very different. Whereas Anne's pedagogical approach is almost totally based on the love for fatherland then Tiina spends her days in the glitter of show business. However, there are some similiarities in their lives. The documentary studies the values, gender roles and moral norms in Estonia at the beginning of 21st century.

2001-12-06 | et

Smile

A heartwarming exploration of a community art project by photographer Tawfik Elgazzar providing free portraits for locals and passers-by in Sydney, Australia's Inner West. The film explores the nature of individuality, cultural diversity and the positive joy for the photographer of seeing his subjects smile.

2018-10-10 | en

Olympia: Part One – Festival of the Nations

Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. This first half of her two-part film opens with a renowned introduction that compares modern Olympians to classical Greek heroes, then goes on to provide thrilling in-the-moment coverage of some of the games' most celebrated moments, including African-American athlete Jesse Owens winning a then-unprecedented four gold medals.

1938-04-21 | de

Mabel

Feisty, fiercely independent and firmly rooted in place, 90 year-old Mabel Robinson broke barriers back in the 40s when she became the first woman in Hubbards, Nova Scotia, to launch her own business—a hairdressing salon where she still provides shampoo-n-sets over 70 years later. Weaving animation and archival imagery with intimate and laugh out loud moments in the salon, the film celebrates the power of friendship, doing what you love and staying active. With no desire to retire anytime soon, Mabel gives voice to a generation who are not front and center of cinema or the pop hairstyles of the day, and subtly shifts the lens on our perception of beauty and the elderly.

2016-01-01 | en

Almodóvar, todo sobre ellas

When looking at Pedro Almodóvar’s filmography, it becomes evident that women are everywhere; in fact, his work revolves around them. His divas are the best to create a real portrait of Almodóvar and evoke the emotional power of his films. These women are the ideal observers of a cinematic career that, from La Mancha to Hollywood, has changed the image of Spain in the world.

2016-09-11 | es

Subjects of Desire

Subjects of Desire is a thought provoking film that examines the cultural shift in beauty standards towards embracing (or appropriating) Black aesthetics and features, deconstructing what we understand about race and the power behind beauty.

2021-03-17 | en

The Truth About Webcam Girls

A documentary that follows three women who perform via webcam to paying customers.

2014-02-24 | en

The Body Heals

A portrait of a woman recovering from cosmetic surgery in Miami.

2016-08-26 | en

The Architecture of Doom

Featuring never-before-seen film footage of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, The Architecture of Doom captures the inner workings of the Third Reich and illuminates the Nazi aesthetic in art, architecture and popular culture. From Nazi party rallies to the final days inside Hitler's bunker, this sensational film shows how Adolf Hitler rose from being a failed artist to creating a world of ponderous kitsch and horrifying terror. Hitler worshipped ancient Rome and Greece, and dreamed of a new Golden Age of classical art and monumental architecture, populated by beautiful, patriotic Aryans. Degenerated artists and inferior races had no place in his lurid fantasy. As this riveting film shows, the Nazis went from banning the art of modernists like Picasso to forced euthanasia of the retarded and sick, and finally to the persecution of homosexuals and the extermination of the Jews.

1989-10-13 | sv

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2011 - The 3D Experience

Paradise won’t ever feel closer than it does in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2011: The 3D Experience natively shot in 3D. Join supermodels Julie Henderson, Alyssa Miller and 2011 SI Swimsuit cover girl Irina Shayk as they explore the natural beauty of Maui—and see it in breathtaking 3D on Blu-ray. Featuring exclusive interviews with the models and amazing photo sessions on some of the most pristine beaches in the world, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2011: The 3D Experience is so vivid and lifelike viewers will almost be able to feel the sand between their toes.

2011-02-15 | en

Desire for Beauty

Four people turn to plastic surgery as the last resort in their search for perfection - their appearances will change, but will their lives?

2013-03-22 | pl

Où sont-elles donc ?

1983-01-01 | fr