Sexy Baby: Newport Beach Festival Film Pick of the Day

What could a 12-year-old girl in Manhattan, a 22-year-old elementary school teacher in North Carolina and a 32-year-old porn star-turned-adult website operator have in common? For one, major issues with their bodies, as MIami Herald journalist Jill Bauer and photographer Ronna Gradus' eye-opening documentary Sexy Baby reveals. The 83-minute film making its West Coast premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival tonight explores the changing perception of girls and women at their own bods in the cyber age.

Pretty Laura's boyfriend is obsessed with porn, so she travels with her perplexed mother to a plastic surgeon out of state to get a little taken off the top of her labia, convinced this will make her more attractive and improve her love life.

Nicole used to be a porn store but now she works on the other side of the camera with her husband, who she met in the business, when she isn't teaching ladies how to stay fit by wrapping themselves around stripper poles. Daddy wants a baby, but Nicole is unsure if she's ready to subject her tight body to pregnancy.

The most compelling character is Winnifred, who has been raised to be an independent woman who bristles at the idea of becoming a sex object. Unfortunately, desire, biology and western media make that damn near impossible to achieve.

The amazing access the filmmakers got to their subjects is what drives the doc forward. Sexy Baby will be a perfect counterpoint to a future project that reveals the innermost thoughts of men when it comes to sex and body issues. Yeah, like that will ever happen.

Here is the trailer:



Sexy Baby screens at 6:15 p.m. at Fashion Island Cinemas, April 28, 6:15 p.m. $12.

Also recommended: Bitter Seeds at 8 p.m. at Triangle Square and 4 p.m. Monday at Fashion Island Cinemas; A Fierce Green Fire at 3:30 p.m. today and 5 p.m. Thursday at Triangle Square; 5 Broken Cameras at 4:30 p.m. today at Fashion Island Cinemas and at 3:45 p.m. Monday at Triangle Square (see reviews).

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