Welcome to The DocArena Podcast in association with Film Ireland. My name is Ross Whitaker and every fortnight, I want to dig deeply into the motivations of documentary filmmakers – how do they choose their subject material and what approaches and strategies do they employ to fund, craft and distribute their work…
In this episode of The DocArena Podcast, Ross Whitaker talks to Jeanie Finlay about her documentary Your Fat Friend.
Your Fat Friend opens in UK and Irish cinemas on Friday 9th February 2024, following a preview Q&A tour which saw Finlay and subject Aubrey Gordon travel across the UK and Ireland and attend sold out screenings.
Tickets are available at www.yrfatfriendfilm.com
Made over 6 years, acclaimed director Jeanie Finlay charts the rise of writer and activist Aubrey Gordon from anonymous blogger to NYTimes best-selling author and beloved podcaster. Her aim? A paradigm shift in the way we see fat people and the fat on our own bodies. Her life-changing work has brought her an ardent, international audience but also threats to her life. One of her biggest challenges is getting her parents to listen.
Your Fat Friend, a film about fatness, family, the complexities of change and the deep, messy feelings we hold about our bodies.
Your Fat Friend had its world premiere at the Tribeca film festival and has also screened at a number of other festivals including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival in Seoul, South Korea and Sheffield DocFest where it won the coveted Audience Award.
Jeanie Finlay is one of Britain’s most distinctive documentary makers, telling intimate stories for international audiences. She has made 9 feature films, for HBO, IFC & BBC Storyville and others including Your Fat Friend, Seahorse; Game Of Thrones: The Last Watch; SOUND IT OUT; The Great Hip Hop Hoax and Orion: The Man Who Would Be King. Jeanie is a Chicken & Egg Awardee with retrospectives at MOMI NYC, BFI and a Criterion collection – People person: Documentaries by Jeanie Finlay
@jeaniefinlay
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Ross Whitaker is a documentary filmmaker (Katie, The Boys in Green, Between Land and Sea) and is a former editor of Film Ireland Magazine and programmer of the IFI Dublin Documentary Film Festival @RossWhitakerTV
Podcast music composed by michaelflemingmusic.com
