by Joanna Chiu Culture Writer
In our culture, the image of a thin woman is glamorous, but as she gets thinner, society judges her body as repulsive.
“Anorexia is sometimes seen as the illness of the rich and famous,” said Lauren Greenfield, director of the documentary Thin. “We reward people who are thinner. Most anorexics will tell you that in the beginning, when they are losing weight, they get a lot of positive feedback, and yet, once they go beyond a certain point and get too thin, people are repulsed by them.”
Greenfield is a veteran photographer who applies an anthropological and sociological perspective to her work. Thin, her debut, has already won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Boston Independent Film Festival.
Thin arose from one of her previous projects, Girl Culture, in which she explored through a mixture of photographs and interviews how the body has become the primary expression of identity for females. She recognised that “eating disorders are the most pathological form of the body project, an extreme example of how girls and women use their bodies as their voices.”
After visiting the Renfrew Center, a treatment facility for eating disorders in Florida, Greenfield decided to take on a more in-depth project about eating disorders. She used film because “eating disorders is a very hard story to tell in photographs; it is very psychological, it is very verbal. You really need to see change over time to look at treatment.”
For two years, Greenfield practically lived at the Renfrew Centre, following the treatment of four women ranging from age 15 to age 30: Brittany, Shelley, Alyssa and Polly. Greenfield filmed solo when the rest of her crew went home on nights and weekends, accumulating over 200 hours of footage.
She developed trusting relationships with her subjects—the women she filmed purging and relapsing — but she never abandoned her role as a documentarist. “My purpose there was to document what was going on, and not to intervene. I usually didn’t feel torn about that because they were in a structure where there were many experts highly trained to help them.”
Greenfield does not believe that her film could “cure” anyone of an eating disorder. “It is a very manipulative, secretive illness. In the end, people have to want to get help to get help.” However, Greenfield, as a photographer, filmmaker and writer, raises awareness about eating disorders and helps create alternative media that does not promote stereotyped ideals of beauty.
After the screening of Thin at the Vancouver Film Festival in October, Greenfield stood in the middle of a throng of audience members. One woman spoke about her sister who had smoked to lose weight. She tells the filmmaker that if her sister had seen Thin, she might still be alive today. Another woman simply said, “Thank you for this gift.”
In our culture, the image of a thin woman is glamorous, but as she gets thinner, society judges her body as repulsive.
“Anorexia is sometimes seen as the illness of the rich and famous,” said Lauren Greenfield, director of the documentary Thin. “We reward people who are thinner. Most anorexics will tell you that in the beginning, when they are losing weight, they get a lot of positive feedback, and yet, once they go beyond a certain point and get too thin, people are repulsed by them.”
Greenfield is a veteran photographer who applies an anthropological and sociological perspective to her work. Thin, her debut, has already won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Boston Independent Film Festival.
Thin arose from one of her previous projects, Girl Culture, in which she explored through a mixture of photographs and interviews how the body has become the primary expression of identity for females. She recognised that “eating disorders are the most pathological form of the body project, an extreme example of how girls and women use their bodies as their voices.”
After visiting the Renfrew Center, a treatment facility for eating disorders in Florida, Greenfield decided to take on a more in-depth project about eating disorders. She used film because “eating disorders is a very hard story to tell in photographs; it is very psychological, it is very verbal. You really need to see change over time to look at treatment.”
For two years, Greenfield practically lived at the Renfrew Centre, following the treatment of four women ranging from age 15 to age 30: Brittany, Shelley, Alyssa and Polly. Greenfield filmed solo when the rest of her crew went home on nights and weekends, accumulating over 200 hours of footage.
She developed trusting relationships with her subjects—the women she filmed purging and relapsing — but she never abandoned her role as a documentarist. “My purpose there was to document what was going on, and not to intervene. I usually didn’t feel torn about that because they were in a structure where there were many experts highly trained to help them.”
Greenfield does not believe that her film could “cure” anyone of an eating disorder. “It is a very manipulative, secretive illness. In the end, people have to want to get help to get help.” However, Greenfield, as a photographer, filmmaker and writer, raises awareness about eating disorders and helps create alternative media that does not promote stereotyped ideals of beauty.
After the screening of Thin at the Vancouver Film Festival in October, Greenfield stood in the middle of a throng of audience members. One woman spoke about her sister who had smoked to lose weight. She tells the filmmaker that if her sister had seen Thin, she might still be alive today. Another woman simply said, “Thank you for this gift.”
