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THROUGH THICK AND THIN (Leslie Côté and Felicia Francescut, 2001) looks at eating disorders through the eyes of two former sufferers. The filmmakers, recovered anorexics and bulimics, are way too coy about their own battles even as they show themselves naked, writing their feelings on a wall. But they conduct riveting interviews. Elka, a full-figured mom, revisits her buried dream of being an opera singer with intermingled pain and passion. Mary Kay, a personal trainer, rails at the medical system for trumping up false reasons for her bulimia. And Susan, barely 80 pounds, is either too scared or too dignified to let the camera film her being weighed. If there’s a common thread running through these women’s stories, it leads back to their mothers. Haunting home movie clips show jaunty little girls literally running away from the maternal clutches. But this documentary doesn’t trade in martyrs or villains. It screens during Eating Disorder Awareness Week as part of CBC Newsworld’s Documentaries On The Road event (see Other Films, below), followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers. It then airs on CBC Newsworld Sunday (February 11) at 10 pm and 1 am. NNN
Kim Linekindieting’s devastations