They're turning oppression into spectacle. Let's make a spectacle of our own!
In 1970, the Miss World competition took place in London, hosted by US comedy legend, Bob Hope. At the time, Miss World was the most-watched TV show on the planet with over 100 million viewers. Claiming that beauty competitions demeaned women, the newly-formed Women’s Liberation Movement achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast of the competition.
Not only that, when the show resumed, the result caused uproar: the winner was not the Swedish favourite but Miss Grenada - the first black woman to be crowned Miss World. In a matter of hours, a global audience had witnessed the patriarchy driven from the stage and the Western ideal of beauty turned on its head.
Starring:
Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessie Buckley, Suki Waterhouse, Greg Kinnear, Lesley Manville, Keeley Hawes, Rhys Ifans, Phyllis Logan
Director:
Philippa Lowthorpe
Producer:
Suzanne Mackie, Sarah-Jane Wheale
Screenplay:
Rebecca Frayn, Gaby Chiappe
Distributor:
Pathé
Running time:
1h 46min
Released:
13 March 2020