All of Me
People:
Alexandra Lescaze (Producer/Director)
Deborah Eve Lewis (Director of Photography)
Jennifer Fineran (Editor)
Grants:
$7,500 for production in 2008
$7,500 for post-production in Winter 2010
About the Project
All of Me, a work-in-progress documentary film, follows a group of women who have been friends, and fat, for years. But now thanks to weight loss surgery they are on the fast track to being thin. A dream come true?Losing weight is changing their lives in unexpected ways, forcing them to reckon with who they have been, who they are becoming and who loves them for precisely who they are.
Their bond goes deep and wide, literally and figuratively. They are smart, intuitive, complex, warm, and compelling. They speak poignantly of a rich inner life that we rarely hear from anyone over 250 pounds. Once they were passionately involved in Size Acceptance and the BBW (Big Beautiful Women) social community. Now, one by one, they are choosing to have Lap Band or gastric bypass weight loss surgery. Losing weight is changing their lives in unexpected ways, forcing them to reckon with who they have been, who they are becoming and who loves them for precisely who they are.
All of Me will shatter myths about the obese and make those who are invisible to us, despite their weight, visible in ways in which we are not accustomed. Weight loss surgery is still very controversial. The beauty is the Girls have success and failure. All of Me will show that obesity has roots like an eating disorder, and what the physical and psychological journey is really like.
All of Me will combine verité and interview, be beautiful and stylized, without narration. It will be an intimate, dramatic unfolding of identity and relationship. It will bring to the screen new authentic voices, humanizing fat women in a way not seen in the media. The film will discredit the diet industry, and shatter myths about the obese, going beyond the headlines and voyeuristic images to find out what is really going on with fat in our society.