The documentary Thin focuses on women who suffer from eating disorders in a treatment facility. Currently not many women are educated on the problems they may face when they have an eating disorder. Not only do women themselves understand what is happening to them, the people around them fail to understand why they may have these problems. Throughout the film we are able to focus closely on some of the patients more closely. The patients the film allows us to see closely are Polly, Alisa, Shelly and Brittany. These ladies are all of different ages and are all at different points in treatment.
On the first day of watching the film what shocked me the most was Brittany’s attitude about getting better. Brittany is only fifteen years
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old and she looks really sick. When Brittany spoke about her background, she told us, the viewers about how her problems started at the age of 8. Brittanys behaviors were accepted by her mother as she and her mother would play eating games as chew and spit. It was so shocking to me to see that her mother allowed that behavior, and never thought maybe this isn't the best thing to teach my child. My mother growing up wouldn't allow us to get up from the dinner table without finishing our food. Finishing our food was something we learned was important for us to grow. It's so hard for me to believe that a mother would spend time encouraging her daughter to have an unhealthy lifestyle. Another thing I found interesting about the first part of the film is the napkin rule that the facility has for the patients. Each patient gets one napkin along with their meal, the facility does this to control the amount of food the patients are wasting. This to me at first was a bit insane to think that I was only allowed to have one napkin per meal. When I have a meal I usually use at least two or three napkins at a time. Then after watching the film i understood that they are just trying to ensure that the women in the facility are eating the appropriate amount of food and not starving themselves. On day two it, we got to learn about another patient and what brought her to the facility. This patient on day one we got to see how he viewed her body image. She was asked to draw her body shape on a piece of long white paper of how she saw herself. Once she was done with the image the doctor later traced her body over the image so that the patient could see what the difference is. After seeing that her actual body was a lot smaller than her image she told the doctor that she made a mistake. That to me was something amazing to see because just from listening to her I was not really able to understand how she sees herself and when she created that drawing I was able to see and in a way understand what was going on in her head. Polly and another patient reached level three and were able to leave the facility for a few hours.
On the ride to their location Polly mentions that she wanted to go to the bookstore because while she was in college she studied English. Instead of going to the library she went to go get a tattoo. This scene made me feel like she was an actual woman and in a way like she was human. I was able to get a look at what are the things she finds fun and that make her, herself. I thought it was smart of her to get the tattoo in a location in which the nurses couldn't see it. I did think it was insane for the tattoo guy to tell the women they shouldn't let the facility make them fat. I thought it was insane that he didn't see that the women were sick and he was encouraging negative behavior in them. That scene just made me think that schools and people have to teach their students or children in the risk of having an eating …show more content…
disorder. On day three it was so heartbreaking to hear that so many of the women were being released from the center due to their health insurance. I thought this was such a problem because the health insurance in the end has to spend more money on the women because they might have to return to the center because they are not doing well. If the health insurance would want to think on the side of the patient and the money they should try and invest the money on the women finishing the program instead of only providing a short amount of money for treatment. It was not shocking at all to see almost all the women who left the center return to their old habits.
For Alisa to go have a scale in front of her toilet it’s pretty insane. Having a scale in front of the toilet is only working as a constant reminder to her of her eating disorder. She had mentioned she wanted to work on her health because of her children but her first night home she's already purging. Polly on the other hand was removed because she couldn’t be trusted but Polly was the only one of the four women who got a job and was living a close to normal life style. Brittani who was the youngest of the group lost almost 20 pounds after leaving the facility which was crazy because she was already so small. While Alisa had to return to the center after trying to commit suicide again and losing a significant amount of weight. While shelly still struggled with her weight issues but she did end up getting married providing a new look in life for her. If it was not for the health insurance cutting the majority of the women out of the program i believe they could of all had the opportunity to make a real change in their lives and get
better. This documentary is important in the field of women's health because a lot of people are usually uneducated in what problems women are unique to. Many girls are uneducated by their parents which is something that’s seriously wrong. Women should have a specific women’s health classes so that they can learn about their body and body functions in a better way. Women who have eating disorders usually do not know that they do. If they are educated at an early age they can prevent becoming sick and having these problems. It’s also so important to become aware of these issues so health insurances can change the policy on the amount of money they are providing for women to get treatment. If the health insurance were more willing to pay for the full treatment of the women they would probably have more women who are fully recovered and they would probably save a lot more money than having people re-enter the system constantly.
Shelly and Polly’s alliance was troublesome because instead of helping each other to overcome their eating disorders they often encouraged each other to go against the rules made by the Center. Polly often had a negative influence over Shelly by allowing her to smoke in her bathroom and giving her mood stabilizers even though it was against policy. Being that Polly had been there longer than Shelly and was appearing to make progress she could have had a better influence on her by keeping her motivated to do the right thing instead of enabling her drug dependence.
Recommended by Jennifer, I went to go see the documentary, Bending the Arc, presented by UGA division of Partners in Health. Before the movie started, we the audience got an honor to talk (via SKype) to Dr. Joia Mukherjee about her field of work, her passion, her membership with Partners in Health, and just her life in general. The incredible yet heartbreaking story of Dr. Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, and Jim Yong Kim and their journey with Partners in Health begins with the snap shots of Haiti in ruins and the terrible conditions the natives were facing due to lack of basic healthcare. It all begin with the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 where the world leaders came together and decided to have health care for all, starting with the poorest.
“Poor Kids,” by PBS Frontline is a documentary that focuses on the children of three families living in poverty. The documentary gives a better understanding on how children are affected by the poverty they are faced with. The majority of the film focuses on their lives and it shows how they are living five years after the initial recording. It gives insight on how each family faces different circumstances due to their poverty.
Throughout the US, millions of POC students exposed to the traditional, rather outdated version of US History. Never do the textbooks explicitly mention and/ or explain the terrorizing, constant stripping down of others’ cultures and appropriating it into the dominant group of predominantly white, Anglo-Saxon and protestant. For many Mexican American students, they can’t relate to anything in the text, nor do they share an interest in the coursework provided. The way US history sets up doesn't teach and somehow excludes Indigenous backgrounds or for the most part was never taught in the classroom but, rather briefly mentioned in one or two paragraphs. Immigrants from diverse groups built this country yet their culture is consistently shown
Analysis Of Two Documentaries I will be analysing two very different types of documentary, 'Dogtown and the Z-Boys', which takes the role of being a full length movie type documentary, and 'Teenage Transsexuals' which was recently shown on Channel 4. 'Dogtown and the Z-Boys' is a documentary which takes a look at the transformation of surfing into skateboarding. The film follows the evolution of skating through it's heyday in the 70's, to it's decline in the 80's, and then back upto it's popular return in the 90's. It also follows the Zephyr team, a high profile surf/skate club which revolutionised the skating industry right upto the present day.
The author’s intended audience is most likely to people who are experiencing the disorder or are interested in knowing more about eating disorders. When Lia was admitted to New Seasons, her rehabilitation facility, she relates her experience to someone who has gone through the struggles in that kind of facility. Lia was expected to be “a good girl [by not poking holes] or write depressing poetry and [eat and eat]” (Anderson 18). Her struggles in the facility allowed the audience who experienced this disorder to relate their experiences. In addition, people who choose to starve...
Universal healthcare: a term feared by many politicians due to the communist connotation, but is it really all that bad? Over 58 countries have some sort of universal health coverage, such as England and France which have single payer healthcare meaning the government provides insurance for all citizens and pays for all healthcare expenses. The United States of America has insurance mandated healthcare meaning the government requires all citizens to purchase insurance, usually provided through their jobs. In America, over 45 million people are uninsured, 20,000 of which will die by the end of the year compared to England or Frances were all residents, legal or not, are covered.
Journal #2 The short documentary “Faubourg Treme- The Untold Story of Black New Orleans” talks about the history of New Orleans. Mainly discusses the issues of economic inequality, political and social unrest in the neighborhood of Treme, and racial inequalities.
Eating disorders are one of society’s most debilitating physical and psychological problems faced today. In the 1950s Marilyn Monroe was society’s role model, but would now be considered a plus-sized model and somewhat unattractive in society’s eyes (Steinem 5). Now in 2013, Demi Lovato, a pop singer, plays a huge role as a role model for young people, but has recently told the media that she suffers from anorexia nervosa and embraces it, ultimately showing adolescents that eating disorders are socially acceptable and even often encouraged (Cotliar 80). The psychological effects that eating disorders have on a patient can be very detrimental to themselves and often push the patient farther into the disorder than she could ever have imagined ("Prevalence vs. Funding" 3). The physical effects that an eating disorder can have on the body could be as minor as feeling faint to something as major as an organ shut down, or even resulting in death (“Physical Dangers” 2). Eating disorders affect a wide variety of people, particularly adolescent girls, and may ultimately lead to many destructive physical and psychological results.
Eating disorders are described as an illness involving eating habits that are irregular and an extreme concern with body image or weight. Eating disorders tend to appear during teenage years, but can develop at any age. Although more common in women, eating disorders can affect any age, gender or race. In the United States, over 20 million women and 10 million men are personally affected by eating disorders. There are many different causes of eating disorders such as low self esteem, societal pressures, sexual abuse and the victims perception of food. Eating disorders are unique to the sufferer and often, their perception of themselves is so skewed, they may not be aware they have an eating disorder. Media, for quite some time now, has played a significant part in eating disorders. Magazines with headlines ‘Summer Body’, or ‘Drop LB’s Fast!’ attract the attention of girls who may be insecure with themselves. Television productions such as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show or American’s Next Top Model, show airbrushed and photoshopped women who have body types that may be unachievable. Those who are suffering from eating disorders can suffer dangerous consequences, and it is important to seek help.
An eating disorder is characterized when eating, exercise and body image become an obsession that preoccupies someone’s life. There are a variety of eating disorders that can affect a person and are associated with different characteristics and causes. Most cases can be linked to low self esteem and an attempt to, “deal with underlying psychological issues through an unhealthy relationship with food” (“Eating Disorders and Adolescence,” 2013). Eating disorders typically develop during adolescence or early adulthood, with females being most vulner...
So basically, I have choose my documentary that based on a true story, it’s called “The Thin Blue Line.” The story begins in October 1976, the 28-year-old Randall Adams and he had with him his brother. They left from Ohio going to California. In their way they had to stop in Dallas Texas, on thanksgiving night. They spent a night in Dallas and in the next morning Randall Adams was offered a job, and he started working on the following day which was Saturday, Obviously I think that he didn’t realize that it was a weekend, so no one showed up. So he took his car and heading back to his home, but unfortunately he ran out of fuel. Then he will meet David Ray
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness; 24 million people of all ages and genders suffer from eating disorders and only 1 in 10 of those 24 million are treated (ANAD). Eating disorders do not discriminate; all ages, genders, ethnicities and races can be victim to this mental illness. It’s important to be aware of the impact eating disorders have on societies across the globe and how the media plays a role if we want to fight the source and promote prevention and/or rehabilitation. I’ve known many people in my life who have some sort of eating disorder, whether it’s anorexia(not eating enough), binge eating(eating large amounts of food rapidly), bulimia (throwing up their food) or just struggling with an unsatisfying self-image. Becoming aware of eating disorders and how they are developed is important to me because in a perfect world, I would like to see this illness become less common or diminished completely among those that I love and anyone else in today’s society. Eating disorders hit home for many people, including myself. Raising awareness may decrease the rate of eating disorders by informing the population of the harm this illness causes and hopefully promote prevention and/or rehabilitation. With the 3 theoretical approaches used by sociologists, Eating disorders can be understood which will better inform society on how to raise awareness, prevent this illness and help those who suffer from eating disorders.
Titicut Follies is a Direct Cinema documentary film directed by Frederic Wiseman, revealing the patients and their existence in an asylum in America. Mainly falling into the "non-narrative"(Nichols 1978) category in the style of Direct Cinema Wiseman films are capturing the reality without any comments from the film-maker and representing it truthfully. Moreover, he uses this approach in his other works like Primate and Hospital, to create unique documentaries, representing different controversial locations, questioning the relationship between cinema and reality and in precise the "objectifying representation"(Nichols 1983) of the reality in cinema. Having no creative input or any interaction with the subjects of his interest, Wiseman goes as closes to that true representation of reality as possible, yet the camera is still visible and it changes the behavior of the people in front of it.
This is a critique of" Roger And Me", a documentary by Michael Moore. This is a film about a city that at one time had a great economy. The working class people lived the American dream. The majority of people in this town worked at the large GM factory. The factory is what gave these people security in their middle working class home life. Life in the city of Flint was good until Roger Smith the CEO of GM decided to close the factory. This destroyed the city. Violent crime became the highest in the nation, businesses went bankrupt, people were evicted from their rented homes. There were no jobs and no opportunity. Life was so bad that Money magazine named Flint the worst place to live in the entire nation. When news of the factory closing first broke, Michael Moore a native of flint decided to search for Roger Smith and bring him to Flint.