La Corona

Oscar nominated doc follows a beauty pageant where the contestants are hired killers, guerrillas and thieves. The contestants are hired killers, guerrillas and thieves. The winner will be crowned Queen, but she won't be invited on a press tour as a role model for young girls. Instead, she will be escorted back to her cell. Nominated for an Oscar for Best short documentary in 2007, La Corona follows four inmates competing for the crown in a beauty pageant like no other, held every year in one of the toughest women's prisons in Bogota Columbia. In a macho culture where femininity is narrowly defined and enforced, televised beauty pageants in Colombia have been known to get higher ratings than World Cup Soccer. National and local beauty pageants are often the centerpiece of cultural festivals, and every little girl dreams of one day being the Queen of her village. But even in Colombia, the idea of a beauty pageant in jail is a bit unusual. The four contestants include: Maira, a steely 21-year-old former assassin; Viviana, a dreamy 24-year- old who has already served six years for guerrilla activity; Angela, 23, a fiery professional thief and hustler from a black ghetto outside the city; and Angie, 22, the "new girl," a single mother who has just been arrested for gang-related robbery. As the competition nears and suspense builds, the women explain in their own words what brought each of them to this place and discuss the lives and loved ones they've left behind.