Beauty Will Save the World

Jan 15, 2003

1h 3m

★ 7.0

Overview

BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD charts the journey of 19 year old Tecca Zendik, a contestant in the Miss Net World contest, Libya's first every beauty competition. Colonel Muammar Qaddafi hosts this competition and the film includes extraordinary footage of the Colonel. Tecca's story reveals an incredible conclusion no-one could have guessed when private jests transported the beauties to the country feared by the West in the 1980's.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Pietra Brettkelly for The TV Set

Bullseye Productions

Beauty Will Save the World Trailers

Cast

Muammar Gaddafi

Omar Harfouch

Teca Zendick

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

At first glance, Matthew VanDyke—a shy Baltimore native with a sheltered upbringing and a tormenting OCD diagnosis—is the last person you’d imagine on the front lines of the 2011 Libyan revolution. But after finishing grad school and escaping the U.S. for "a crash course in manhood," a winding path leads him just there. Motorcycling across North Africa and the Middle East and spending time as an embedded journalist in Iraq, Matthew lands in Libya, forming an unexpected kinship with a group of young men who transform his life. Matthew joins his friends in the rebel army against Gaddafi, taking up arms (and a camera). Along the way, he is captured and held in solitary confinement for six terrifying months.

6.9

The Hunt for Gaddafi's Billions

Nov 30, 2020

In life, the Libyan leader ruled with an iron fist for 42 years and treated Libya's wealth as his own. He died the richest man on the planet with a fortune of $150 billion. A dictatorial leader in life, the spell of Gaddafi's money remained in place after his death, triggering a ruthless race to find his missing billions. Two journalists pick up the trail of a mysterious $12.5 billion in cash, flown out of Libya in the dead of night just months before Gaddafi's demise.

6.3

Mad Dog: Gaddafi's Secret World

Feb 3, 2014

Featuring real interviews and archive footage, this documentary gives an overview of Gaddafi's tyrannical reign over Libya from his early life until his death in 2011.

5.6

Served Like a Girl

Nov 8, 2017

Five women veterans who have endured unimaginable trauma in service create a shared sisterhood to help the rising number of stranded homeless women veterans by entering a competition that unexpectedly catalyzes moving events in their own lives.

7.0

Pretty Old

Jan 28, 2012

When 30 women aged 67 - 84 from across America and around the world descend on Fall River, Massachusetts to compete in the 30th anniversary Ms. Senior Sweetheart Pageant, hilarity and heartbreak ensue.

6.4

Benito Mussolini: Anatomy of a Dictator

Jan 20, 1962

No overview available.

6.3

Entorno da Beleza

Sep 20, 2012

The film follows the Miss contest season in Brasilia and satellite cities of the Federal District in the year 2010, revealing the contradictions behind the catwalks of fashion.

0.0

Donga

Nov 14, 2023

“There was excitement in the air,” says Donga, now in his late twenties, describing his feelings when the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi’s rule broke out in 2011. He was 19, living in Misrata, and boldly went to film the fighting with a friend. A decade later, in a hotel in Istanbul, where he has been living since he was wounded in battle, he looks back on the past ten years through excerpts from his videos. And he reflects on how that period has affected him.

6.4

The Queen

Jun 17, 1968

In 1967, New York City is host to the Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant. This documentary takes a look behind the scenes, transporting the viewer into rehearsals and dressing rooms as the drag queen subculture prepares for this big national beauty contest. Jack/Sabrina is the mistress of ceremonies, and their protégé, Miss Harlow, is in the competition. But, as the pageant approaches, the glamorous contestants veer from camaraderie to tension.

6.7

Miss Italia Mustn't Die

Feb 26, 2025

Behind the glitz of Miss Italia, director Patrizia Mirigliani fights to save the iconic pageant, now wavering amid scandals and changing beauty standards.

8.0

You are Not a Soldier

Sep 9, 2021

As filmmaker Maria Carolina Telles comes to terms with the death of her father, a man who regretted never making it to the frontlines of World War II, she focuses her lens on the life of another man who had his own unique experience as a civilian in the midst of combat: award-winning war photographer André Liohn.

4.0

Crowned Species

Apr 12, 2013

A journalistic investigation, built not on rumors and assumptions, but on direct evidence, revealing the true mechanisms of podium coronations. Hidden camera footage of negotiations with the owners of the largest national beauty contests and an attempt to answer the question of why these people are not yet in prison. Famous people on the jury are not a guarantee of fair judging. Irrefutable evidence of the corruption of the so-called “stars” who elect the next Miss and Mrs. The collection and subsequent theft of funds for charity is a side business of the owners of fraudulent shows. What actually awaits the titled Misses after purchasing the prize? And what do children's beauty pageants turn out to be like for young participants?

0.0

Etiopia 1936: alla conquista dell'impero

Jan 1, 2004

By means of a chronological arrangement of historical video material from the Istituto Luce archives, it tells the story of Fascist Italy's ambitions in Africa and the role they played in shaping fascist ideology and the stance of the fascist regime in the Western world at the height of the age of colonialism and aggressive European expansionism.

No Image

1.0

The Bikini Open 5

Jan 1, 1991

THE BIKINI OPEN is a special-event, retro series featuring the best swimsuit, fitness, bikini, and modeling competitions from the early 90s.

No Image

3.8

Mondo Nude

Jun 8, 1979

A documentary on the 1978 Miss Nude World pageant.

0.0

We Chose Skegness

Jul 1, 1961

A pools winning family with over Ј8,000 to spend can have a holiday anywhere they like. But they forgo the Costas for Skegness - but decide to do it in style.

8.0

Route 4

Nov 24, 2021

No overview available.

7.3

Shadows of a Leader: Qaddafi's Female Bodyguards

Jan 4, 2004

The documentary investigates the phenomenon of Qaddafi's elite female bodyguard corps and the tensions these women embody: tensions between Islam, modernisation in a nomadic society, a militarist feminism and an urban dictatorship.

6.5

The World Before Her

Mar 11, 2012

Moving between two extremes - the intimate verite drama of the Miss India pageant's rigorous beauty "bootcamp" and the intense regime of a militant Hindu fundamentalist camp for young girls. The World Before Her delivers a provocative portrait of India and its current cultural conflicts during a key transitional era in the country's modern history.

6.6

The British Guide to Showing Off

Nov 11, 2011

Documentary about British artist Andrew Logan as he attempts to put on the 2009 edition of his Alternative Miss World. The film also presents a history of the contest (which has run eccentrically since 1972) which was set up firstly as an excuse to have a good party, but has grown into a celebration of alternative lifestyles and sexualities. The documentary mixes archive footage, animated inserts, with talking head interviews and a fly-on-the-wall look at the organisation of the 2009 event

Beauty Will Save the World

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Beauty Will Save the World Trailers