There She Is (2020)

"There She Is" examines the Who and Why of women and girls in beauty pageants, emphasizing the Me-Too era. It examines the good (pageants for the disabled), the bad (exploitive pageants), and the really ugly (child pageants). Many Miss America's are subjects, including BeBe Shopp, the oldest, Vanessa Williams, the first African American, Ericka Dunlap ('04) and Mallory Hagan ('13). The film travels from Fire Island,N.Y. (the "Miss Fire Island" (Drag) Pageant), to Orlando (the "International Junior Miss" (Children's) Pageant) , to Grand Rapids (the "Miss Handicapped" Pageant) to Columbus (the "Miss Muslimah" Pageant). We also speak with Mikayla Holmgren, the 1st woman with Down's Syndrome in a mainstream pageant, Autumn Rose Williams, Miss Native America, and Maude Gorman of Massachusetts pageant, who walked off the pageant stage after an anti-MeToo joke. Director Tracey Anarella captures the angst, emotion and contradictory impulses as these persons chase their own, sometime peculiar dreams.