Panel conversation about the documentary Your Fat Friend
In connection with the screening of Your Fat Friend at BIFF, the University of Bergen is organizing a panel conversation with the film’s director about fat activism and fat representation.
Main content
Welcome to a panel conversation about the documentary Your Fat Friend.
The main character, Aubrey Gordon, is an American fat activist and author. She writes and speaks about society’s negative discrimination against fat people. The film follows Aubrey over several years, from being an anonymous blogger under the pseudonym “your fat friend” to publishing a book and revealing her full name. Together with journalist Michael Hobbes, she started the popular podcast Maintenance Phase.
The film also shows Aubrey with her family and focuses on the relationships between them. It is an informative documentary about fatphobia and weight stigma. It also comments on the relationship between parents and children when it comes to bodies and dieting.
Director Jeanie Finlay masterfully balances the close personal relationships and the broader structural perspective on society’s attitudes and actions towards fat people. Aubrey’s experiences, viewpoints, and fat body are central to this film in a way we rarely see and experience in films about fatness.
This film is a perfect starting point for a conversation about fatphobia and weight stigma: What is it, and what is fat activism about? The panel conversation will also address the topic of fat representation in film.
In conversation are director Jeanie Finlay and PhD candiate at the Centre for Digital Narrative, Ella Maria Holi. PhD candidate at the Centre for Women's and Gender Research, Sunniva Árja Tobiasen, will moderate the conversation.
The event is a cooperation between the Centre for Women's and Gender Research (SKOK), the Student Committee for Gender Studies at UiB (Fagutvalget for kjønnsstudier), Center for Digital Narrative (CDN), Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF) and the seminar series UiB Innsikt.
The conversation will be held in English, and afterwards it's possible to catch a screening of the film in the movie theatre Lux 5 at 6.30 pm. We encourage everyone to buy tickets to the screening beforehand!
The panelists
Director Jeanie Finlay is one of Britain’s most distinctive documentary makers. She creates award-winning work for cinema and television, telling intimate stories to international audiences.
Your Fat Friend is her latest film, and it had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, followed by its international premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest, where it won the audience award.
Whether inviting audiences to share the (extra)ordinary journey of a British transgender man, pregnant with his child (BIFA nominated Seahorse), or onto the set of the world’s biggest television show (Emmy nominated Game Of Thrones: The Last Watch), all of Jeanie's films are all made with the same steel and heart, sharing an empathetic approach to bringing overlooked and untold stories to the screen.
Sunniva Árja Tobiasen (they/them) is PhD candidate at the Centre for Women's and Gender Research. In their research, they explore gender and sexuality norms together with body norms, with a particular focus on fatness.
Ella Maria Holi is PhD candidate at the Center for Digital Narrative. Ella's project focuses on fat narratives in social media and how these challenge the normative narratives of fatness.
Tickets
The panel conversation is free and does not require registration.
To see the film, you need to buy tickets, and there are three screenings of Your Fat Friend during the festival: Friday 18 October at 10 am, Tuesday 22 October at 6.30 pm (one hour after the panel conversation) and Thursday 24 October at 2.45 pm.
-> Buy tickets to the film here.
About BIFF
- Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF) is the largest film festival in Norway. The festival screens a great mix of new feature and documentary films from all over the world.
- BIFF has a dedicated focus on documentary films, but the audience has the opportunity to see a number of fiction films, short films, and more.
- BIFF 2024 lasts from 16 to 24 October, and you can see these films during the festival.
- UiB and BIFF cooperate about several events during this year's festival, among them The Golden Owl 2024; UiB's competition programme for research and science documentaries.
