Margaret Cho: Beautiful (2009)

Learning to love her luscious self over the past forty years, comedian Margaret Cho realized that the eye of the beholder doesn't hold all the power when it comes to beauty. Our tastes may be groomed by the media, but how we feel about how we look brings our self-image into focus. Armed with something more potent than lip gloss - a mouth so shocking and raunchy it should be stamped with a warning - Cho toured America with her manifesto: "This show is really about how we should feel beautiful," says Cho. "When you feel beautiful, you're going to have more of a willingness to use your voice to speak." Shot at the Long Beach Terrace Theater, Cho's latest stand-up concert film, Beautiful, explores the good, bad, and downright ugly in beauty, and the unattractive politicians and marketers who shape our world.

Lorene MachadoDirector