Watch Beautopia: The Model Movie

Aspiring to be a supermodel has replaced the age-old dream of becoming an actress as the most coveted career among teenage girls around the world. Supermodels today enjoy revered celebrity status; Cindy, Naomi, and Kate are known by first name alone. Intrigued by this fascination, filmmaker Katharina Otto-Bernstein traverses the globe, following four young models on the verge of capturing their dreams and becoming superstars. These four hopefuls are plucked from their homes and families and thrust into the adult modeling world with little guidance. The aspiring models are sent to various international markets on their own and are expected to establish themselves and take full responsibility for their potential success.
Balanced with interviews with established models such as Lauren Hutton, Elle MacPherson, and Claudia Schiffer, BEAUTOPIA contrasts the sobering reality of the business of beauty with its false promises, competition and rejection to the fairy tale images in the young models' heads.
Otto-Bernstein examines the modeling world from the inside, gaining entry to the most private situations: from agents discussing a model?s traits on a go-see to a fitting for a Paris runway show. The glamour the public sees on the printed page is a far cry from life behind the scenes. Otto-Bernstein has crafted a suspenseful journey of lost innocence, filled with hope and anguish. Where Unzipped led us behind the curtain of the fashion industry, BEAUTOPIA gets beneath the perfect skin of the modeling world.

Beautopia: The Model Movie is a 1998 documentary with a runtime of 1 hour and 42 minutes.