Tag Archives: obesity

The Manor

Shawney calls himself a filmmaker, but he’s been a strip-club manager for longer. When he was six his father bought “The Manor”, a small-town strip club.

Thirty years later, the family’s lifestyle has got the better of them. While his 400-pound father prepares for stomach-reduction surgery, his 85-pound mother has her own complicated relationship with food. Shawney’s role as struggling filmmaker and outcast son provides a rare glimpse into a family facing the consequences of their livelihood and dependence.

Told with humor and frankness, The Manor is an intimate portrait of people struggling to call themselves a family.

“There’s more than a faint echo of ‘Grey Gardens’ in this Canadian-gothic portrait of an unusual family business.”
Variety

“The Manor… [rises] to the ranks of some of the best family portrait documentaries.”
Indiewire

“in the vein of Capturing the Friedmans and Crazy Love”
Filmmaker Magazine 

“78 minutes rich with character, incident, friction, deadpan humour and voyeuristic thrills.”
The Globe & Mail

***Opening Night Film – Hot Docs***
***Official Competition – Karlovy Vary – Winner, Honorable Mention Best Documentary***
***Official Competition Opening Night – Zurich***
***Official Competition – Woodstock – Winner, Best Editing***
***Official Selection – Bergen***
***Official Selection – Goteborg***
***Official Selection – DOCNYC***
***Official Selection – Antenna***
***Official Selection – DMZ***

Facing the Fat

Kenny Saylors, after years of being healthy and athletic, became severely overweight and after trying various diets decided to do something drastic about it. With the support of his Doctor, he decided to stop eating for 55 days, drinking only water.

Facing the Fat documents his journey, from the realisation that he had a physical and mental addiction to the chemicals in junk food, to the detox and repair that his body goes through during this record-breaking fast. It also looks at the wider implications of over-eating for the individual, society and the world at large.

Obesity has become one of the most overwhelming diseases in modern society costing American taxpayers $99 billion every year, while the number of overweight people has surpassed the number of people suffering from malnutrition by 200 million.

Facing the Fat presents an entertaining and inspiring challenge but also makes the serious point, that obesity is not just a personal struggle, but one that has far reaching implications for us all.