REPORTER: Giovana Vitola

Modelling is fast becoming Brazil's most famous export. Here at Sao Paulo Fashion Week there's no one more famous than Gisele Bundchen - the modelling world's top money spinner who last year took home an estimated US$25 million. But Brazil's obsession with their own lighter-skinned models is alienating half of her population.

HELDER DIAS, MODELLING AGENT (Translation):  We have the second biggest black population on the planet. Only Nigeria is ahead of us. That's whey there's this concern, this demand by the people, that we should have more black models on the catwalk and in advertising.

1,000km south of Sao Paulo it's more like Bavaria than Brazil. But it's here, in the southern states of the country, where German immigrants settled and Brazil's most successful models are now discovered and where girls like 15-year-old Caroline Buranello dream of being the next supermodel.

CAROLINE BURANELLO (Translation): There's Gisele. I think every model wants to be like Gisele Bundchen when she's starting out. I think she represents an ideal for every girl wanting this career.

She's about to leave her family's village in Marialva in southern Brazil for the country's biggest model convention in Sao Paulo.

CAROLINE BURANELLO (Translation): Dad, can you help me with the bags?

MRS BURANELLO (Translation):   It's been her dream since she was seven. We've auditioned but nothing's worked out. This could be her big chance. I hope so.

This will be the first time Caroline has been away from her parents for more than a day.

MRS BURANELLO (Translation):  I'll miss her. Three days without hugging her. We're missing her already. I'd better stop or I'll cry.

CAROLINE BURANELLO (Translation): This is my friend. Yes, Aline.

REPORTER (Translation):  How you, Aline?

ALINE (Translation): Great.

REPORTER (Translation):  Are you excited?

ALINE (Translation):  We sure are. It's the moment we've been waiting for.

It's 3:00am and Caroline and her friend Aline are heading to Sao Paulo by bus. It might not look like it to us but Aline's distant, mixed African heritage makes her black in some people's eyes. Africans came to Brazil for three centuries as part of the Atlantic slave trade and for some Brazilians, there's a class divide that still separates white from black.

At the model's convention Dilson Stein is the man every girl wants to impress. He's the famed talent scout who discovered the Brazilian superstars Gisele and Alessandra Ambrosio.  At the convention Dilson and his team teach the young hopefuls the basics of the catwalk. While most of these girls and boys are teenagers, Dilson Stein is also recruiting child models.

DILSON STEIN, TALENT SCOUT (Translation):  Now it's the assessment phase. Photos, video and catwalk. On the catwalk, we'll be training them and giving them tips for the fashion show tomorrow. And the photos and videos will be made available to agencies to make DVDs so they can assess the candidates.

After days of rehearsal, the girls are presented to the agents - the people who make or break a model's career.

MAN (Translation):  Right, now we'll take your measurements. Feet together. 89. 62. Are you wearing a padded bra? Come a bit closer.

Modelling is a major industry in Brazil - conventions like this one are held almost every month. But the catwalks are hardly representative. Of the 200 girls and boys here today, only 10 would call themselves black. In the real Brazil, over half the population is non-white.

DILSON STEIN (Translation): What's different in the south is the racial mix. We were mainly colonised by Europeans. So there's a mix of Italians, Poles, Germans. And that mix makes it easier to find new models there.

Across town, a very different catwalk rehearsal is occurring, albeit on a much smaller scale. Helder Dias runs a modelling agency for darker-skinned Brazilians.

HELDER DIAS (Translation):  I think Brazil lacks individuality. It has no identity. It buys and sells whatever works. That's the fashion scene in Brazil. They brought European and American styles to Brazil because they didn't know what else to do. You go to Sao Paulo Fashion Week and only see white models. Why? because that's the image they want to project to the world.

MODEL (Translation):  The way it works, there are more openings for white models. We still haven't had a Brazilian beauty with a real Brazilian face. Brazil is hiding what it thinks is not beautiful enough.

For the models like Fernando Almeida, who do get work, discrimination is still a problem. It appears some companies are reluctant to use black models in their commercials.

FERNANDO ALMEIDA, MODEL (Translation):  Because, look. Everyone there was white except for me. Two weeks later, an ad was made with a white boy playing the same part as I did with all the same people in it, and that ad went to air. So I saw it was a clear case of discrimination.

District attorney Deborah Kelly Affonso negotiated a recent catwalk quota agreement. It's forcingBrazil's biggest fashion show to increase the number of black models to 10%. Before this, just 2% of the models were black.

DEBORAH KELLY ALLONSO, DISTRICT ATTORNEY (Translation):  People of African descent are stigmatised as being poorer. So in Brazil, from a purely racial point of view, there's no discrimination against blacks in the sense of segregation. It's much more an economic prejudice. It's not their colour. They're seen as having no spending power. So what we notice when we start to look at all this is that the brands don't want black people linked to their name, representing their logos. Why? because these people are seen as lacking the socio-economic or financial capacity to buy those products.

But the changes haven't gone nearly far enough for some. Friar Davi Santos is a campaigner with Educafro - a leading human rights organisation for black Brazilians. He's demanding equal representation for blacks in a white dominated society.

FRIAR DAVI SANTOS, EDUCAFRO (Translation):   Brazil has a God-given opportunity to be an ethnically diverse country. And it has to be respected as such. Either the dominant class wakes up and respects us or we will step up our struggle to be included. So this dominant class sells to the world the image of a white society. And we blacks are saying "That's enough! We want respect”.

DILSON STEIN (Translation):  I think there's room for all races. Black models, blondes, brunettes, to me, they're all the same.  Luckily, I don't have this or any other prejudice. I really am a fan of the black race. In my opinion there's no need for a quota. They should be treated like anybody else.

On the final day of the conference, Caroline and Aline remain hopeful but their modelling futures lie in the hands of the agents.

REPORTER: (Translation):   How do you think it went?

CAROLINE BURANELLO (Translation): I can't really say. It's up to them. It's hard to know what they think of us.

AGENT (Translation):  She needs work, to take better care of her skin and maybe even a nose job - that would highlight her features more and make her face more harmonious. That - and her skin - that's vital.

Aline is also left disappointed. The agents have found their next potential Gisele and as usual, the racial profile is no surprise.

ALINE (Translation):   I really don't think it's fair. I think it's still a taboo area. It should be more balanced because Brazil's population is black.

CAROLINE BURANELLO (Translation): I agree with her because I think there is prejudice, even if it's indirect.

ALINE (Translation): I believe there should be work not only for white people but for blacks, redheads and so on.

CAROLINE BURANELLO (Translation): Regardless of colour, race or social classs.

Reporter/Camera

GIOVANA VITOLA

Producer

ANGUS LLEWELLYN

AARON THOMAS

Researcher

JANE WORTHINGTON

Editor

ANGUS FORBES

Subtitling                  

PENNY WOODS

Original Music composed by

VICKI HANSEN