New documentary addresses obsession with body image

By Kate Pastor

'Beauty Mark,' a documentary about the quest for inner and outer beauty, will be screened on Wednesday, April 30, at 7:15 p.m., at the Jacob Burns Film Center, 364 Mansville Road, Pleasantville, N.Y.

Diane Israel, a 48-year-old psychotherapist, treated patients who hated what they thought their bodies looked like for years before deciding to make a beauty documentary.

But in the process of making the film, she was forced to confront and relive her own life-long struggle with her body, acted out from a young age through obsessive exercise and anorexia.

Her story became the thread woven throughout Beauty Mark - a documentary about the quest for inner and outer beauty being screened for one night, April 30, at Pleasantville's Jacob Burns Film Center at 7:15 p.m.

"I did not want to be in this film," said Ms. Israel. But, "it became obvious that in order to really make this movie accountable I had to be willing to tell my own stories and face my own issues."

Out of hiding

Carla Precht, former director of Riverdale Neighborhood House and life-long family friend to Ms. Israel, helped bring her out of hiding. Ms. Precht grew up next door to Ms. Israel and faced similar pressures growing up.

Now director of community service programs at Brooklyn Friends School and executive director of Horizons, an academic enrichment program, Ms. Precht said the families remained close over the years. About four years ago, Ms. Israel brought up the idea of making a movie and Ms. Precht eventually became co-producer, co-director and co-writer.

Ms. Israel had a troubled childhood. Her mother was gorgeous but mentally ill and her father was controlling and obsessed with beauty, she said. One brain-damaged brother was sent away to a home, and she had difficult relationships with her other siblings. She had already stopped eating when she was raped at 13.

She persevered and became a world-class runner and champion triathlete, but collapsed at 28 from the strain she had put on her body. She then started therapy, enrolled to study psychology at Naropa University, where she is now a professor, and fell in love with a woman. But Ms. Israel, who has a private practice in Boulder, Colo., and is a senior counselor at Women's Quest, an adventure camp, said her role as a therapist gave her something to hide behind when it came to her own problems.

Assigning blame

"I wanted to find something to blame," said Ms. Israel about her impetus for making the film. "I wanted to know why I was such a mess. I wanted to think this was just a simple thing. Like I could tell America, just stop it." It was to be a Michael Moore-style documentary, getting at the heart of the beauty obsession.

As the two first-time moviemakers set out to shoot, Ms. Precht and others realized that Ms. Israel's story also needed to be told.

"It became apparent to me," said Ms. Precht, "that she was still fighting many of the demons she had when she was a little girl."

Despite her aversion at first, Ms. Israel said, "The deeper part of me knew I had to do this." For the sake of the story, the people she was trying to help and her own recovery, she agreed to be interviewed and then to play a central role in the story.

"Carla kind of basically shined a light or took a mirror and turned it towards me," said Ms. Israel. By telling Ms. Israel's tale, the documentary explores the role of family, peers and culture in helping to create our body images and addictions.

Riverdale connection

Ms. Israel's family is interviewed in the film, and she speaks about self-image with local therapist Etty L. Bar-Shai, deputy director of social services at Riverdale Neighborhood House, as well as with athletes, bodybuilders, models, burn survivors and inner-city teens. New York Times health writer Jane Brody, playwright Eve Ensler, author Paul Campos and culture critic Naomi Wolf also weigh in on the beauty issue.

The documentary, a SheArt Production in association with Salmon Pictures, looks at negative messages promoted through family, peers and the media but also gives a nod to progress. "I had no intention at all of trying to give any solutions or wrap up any discussions of eating disorders in a neat little package," said Ms. Precht.

The movie's website, www.beautymarkmovie.com, contains resources and reading materials, and Ms. Israel said she hopes the film's momentum will help create Beauty Mark support groups and a non-profit to deal with eating disorders.

Though Ms. Israel still struggles with exercise bulimia, she says that putting herself in the public eye has helped her heal. "I don't think I would have had the courage to be so vulnerable [without Ms. Precht]," she said. She wants to do for others what Ms. Precht helped her do. "My dream is that it gives other people permission to stop apologizing," she said.

This is part of the April 24, 2008 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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