Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 13 July 2017
‘To the Bone’ walks fine line

of depicting eating disorders

By LINDSEY BAHR “To the Bone” has already eating disorders discussed
AP Film Writer provoked passionate re- on a national platform like
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Writer sponses. Critics latched this is really important.”
and director Marti Noxon on to a trailer and picked NEDA participated in a
struggled with anorexia it apart for its potential to public service announce-
and bulimia for 10 years. It’s trigger and a worry that ment “Nine Truths About
her story, albeit a fictional- it could glamorize eating Eating Disorders “ with the
ized version, that she tells disorders or be used as “To the Bone” cast, but
in “To The Bone,” a feature “thinspiration.” It was also had no involvement in the
film coming to Netflix on lampooned for focusing actual film.
Friday about a 20-year-old on “another middle class Representatives have en-
artist whose eating disorder white woman.” couraged Netflix to include
has reached a dire point. Its put Collins and Noxon in resources for help in its roll-
Lily Collins, who herself has the position of having to be out.
a history with eating disor- defensive before the film is An organization that has
ders, plays the main char- even out. supported “To the Bone”
acter Ellen. Both say they hope audi- is the eating disorder non-
“I didn’t remember seeing ences respond to its more profit Project HEAL , which
a feature film that dealt nuanced and complex has hosted screenings and
with this,” Noxon said re- portrait of the illness and discussions of the film.
cently in a joint interview the various ways in which it Project HEAL co-founders
with Collins. can manifest. For instance, Kristina Saffran and Liana
“I felt like it was high time there’s a woman of color Rosenman hoped to help
there was a more authen- in the treatment center, as the filmmakers deliver a re-
tic look at it, something that well as a man. As fellow sur- sponsible message about
felt more genuine. There’s vivors, they were extremely eating disorders and pro-
still a lot of misunderstand- careful in just how they vide accurate information
ing of it. People make the wanted to bring the story and resources.
mistake of thinking it’s all to life. “It’s pretty groundbreak-
about vanity run amok.” Noxon consulted with spe- ing,” Saffran said. “It’s ex-
The depiction of eating dis- cialists who treat eating tremely hard to make a
orders, and specifically an- disorders during the script movie about eating disor-
orexia, in film and on televi- phase and, as a result, nev- ders that really gets to the
sion has a troubled history. er includes mention of El- reality of the disorder and
In feature films, we’ve seen len’s weight or goal weight how serious and challeng-
it fetishized as Natalie Port- — in fact, numbers aren’t ing and life-threatening
man’s perfectionist bal- discussed — and only once these disorders can be
lerina coos over half of a shows the character’s full without glamourizing them.
grapefruit in “Black Swan,” body. Numbers, she said, ‘To the Bone’ does an
exploited as an emaci- can stick in people’s heads amazing job of striking that
ated patient wails that and become aspirational. balance.”
“74 pounds is the perfect “We didn’t want it to be For others, however, depic-
weight” in “Girl, Interrupt- gratuitous in any way,” Col- tion itself can be the issue.
ed,” satirized with Barbie lins said. “Neither Marti nor Dr. Emily Fox-Kales has been
dolls in “Superstar: The Kar- I having experienced this a clinical psychologist for
en Carpenter Story” and would ever set out to make over 30 years specializing
played for comedic effect a movie that fetishized, en- in the treatment of eating
when in the black comedy couraged or glamourized disorders. She also teach-
“Drop Dead Gorgeous” a this disorder.” es film and gender studies
skeletal and wheelchair- Ellen, who is witty, vibrant and her 2011 book “Body
bound beauty pageant and darkly funny, is also not Shots: Hollywood and the
contestant rolls out on the kind of tragic heroine Culture of Eating Disorders”
stage to lip synch “Don’t you might recognize from examined how movies and
Cry Out Loud.” On televi- other depictions. celebrity culture can influ-
sion, interpretations are While some 30 million Amer- ence the way real people
usually of the maudlin and icans struggle with eating feel, eat and live.
melodramatic variety — disorders at some point in “The best way to under-
Lifetime films about broken their lives, according to stand it is genetics and
homes and obsessive teen- the National Eating Disor- your family and all that stuff
age girls where tears and der Association (NEDA), load the gun and make
death are a guarantee. it remains an illness that is you vulnerable, but I really
And most of the time, it’s widely misunderstood. think our culture pulls the
about a young, white, un- “For us as an organization, trigger,” said Fox-Kales.
derweight female. we’re very interested in Fox-Kales has also not seen
For these reasons and raising the profile of eating “To the Bone,” but worries
the sensitivities of those disorders as a serious pub- that the imagery can often
who have or are suffer- lic health issue,” said NEDA be more powerful than the
ing from eating disorders, CEO Claire Mysko. “Having message behind it. q