Dove Documentary Debuts Today in Park City

To illustrate how beauty is being redefined and to mark the tenth anniversary of its “Campaign for Real Beauty,” Dove has partnered with Sundance Institute and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Cynthia Wade on a documentary short film called “Selfie.” The movie debuts today at the Sundance Institute's Women at Sundance brunch in Park City, UT.

Directed by Wade and produced by Sharon Liese, “Selfie” captures the journey of multiple generations of girls and their mothers in hte Berkshires of western Massachusetts as they create a new type of selfie that celebrates their unique beauty.

Dove said is committed to creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety and hopes to make this vision a reality by inspiring all women to redefine beauty and share their own beauty stories using #BeautyIs.   

“Selfie” focuses on a social media challenge, #BeautyIs, in which the film's participants explore their vulnerable self-images and take selfies which prominently feature what they perceive as their personal physical flaws. With the help of a professional photographer, the girls build the courage to create art by embracing their least desirable feature thus expanding their definition of what beauty is. Exhibiting these images in a #BeautyIs selfie photo gallery, the young women share their newly discovered beauty with women of all ages in their community. 

“How we define beauty today has evolved over the past ten years,” said Nancy Etcoff, director of the program in aesthetics and well being at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School, who consulted on the research. “The advent of social media is an empowering tool for women to tell their own beauty story and has allowed the definition of beauty to evolve into one that is more multi-faceted and inclusive. Women are becoming their own media creators. It's the personalization of beauty for the next generation.”

“The way women are defining beauty today is changing dramatically, and social media has much to do with the change,” said Wade. “Now we have the ability to photograph the beauty we see in our friends and ourselves. When we share these diverse images on our social networks, we are taking personal ownership and truly redefining beauty.”  

As part of its commitment to redefining beauty, Dove is supporting the 2013-2014 Mentorship Program of the Sundance Institute – Women In Film Los Angeles Women Filmmakers Initiative. The 2014 class of mentees includes six female filmmakers involved in both documentary and narrative projects who have been paired with mentors working in the industry today. The goal of the mentorship year is to provide these artists with support, community and access to help them advance their careers to the next level. Additionally, the Dove brand's support allowed for the creation of the Dove Beauty Redefined Fellowship, providing a grant to Cynthia Wade to create Selfie. As part of this grant, Ms. Wade was paired with two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple who acted as a mentor throughout the creative process.