Thin

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 – 7:30pm
USA 2005. Director: Lauren Greenfield
Introduced by Jenny Barley

Post-screening discussion with Dr. Samantha Kelleher
Co-sponsored by Specialized Eating Disorders Services, Providence Health Care – St. Paul ‘s Hospital and Medical Students for Mental Health Awareness.

Our society’s preoccupation with body image is reflected in the
fact that, at any given time, 70 percent of women and 35 percent of men are
dieting. More seriously, a 1993 Statistics Canada survey reported that, among
women aged 15 to 25, 1 to 2 percent have anorexia and 3 to 5 percent have
bulimia. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all mental
illnesses, with 10 to 20 percent eventually dying from complications. Seeking to
put a human face to these sobering statistics, acclaimed photographer Lauren
Greenfield spent six months inside The Renfrew Center, a Florida treatment
facility for eating disorders, to tell the stories of four women who are
literally dying to be thin. Brittany is a 5-year-old striving to be thin in
order to gain acceptance among her peers. Shelly is a 25-year-old nurse who
enters Renfrew with a feeding tube surgically implanted in her stomach. Alisa,
30, is a divorced mother of two who joined the army in order to lose weight. The
troublesome Polly, 29, has spent years in and out of treatment and often
challenges the center’s policies and procedures. The film follows these women
through early-morning weight checks, emotionally draining mealtimes, tearful
therapy sessions, and tense encounters with staff and family members.
Unflinching and incisive, Thin takes us on an emotional journey through
the world of eating disorders, offering an intimate and devastating portrait of
self-loathing, denial, and depression. Colour, Digibeta video. 105
mins.

Introduced by Jenny Barley, 4th year UBC
medical student and Co-Chair, Medical Students for Mental Health Awareness

Post-screening discussion with Dr. Samantha
Kelleher, a staff psychiatrist at Royal Columbian Hospital and St.
Paul’s Hospital. Dr. Kelleher has a special interest in eating disorders and has
completed fellowship training at St. Paul’s Eating Disorders Program.

Co-sponsored by Specialized Eating Disorders Services,
Providence Health Care – St. Paul ‘s Hospital and Medical Students for Mental
Health Awareness.

Moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, Clinical
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UBC.

Frames of Mind is a monthly film event utilizing film
and video to promote professional and community education on issues pertaining
to mental health and illness.

For more information, see the Pacific Cinémathèque Program
Guide
http://www.cinematheque.bc.ca/jan_feb_08/frames_of_mind.htm