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and Greenfield's own 2002 exhibit
and book, Girl Culture.
Her documentary focuses less on
the complex causes of eating dis-
orders than the Herculean task of
recovery for patients who use food
the way addicts use drugs.
Polly, a shy psychiatric nurse,
weighs in at 84 pounds but blissfully
talks about the days when she sucked
food out of her feeding tube with a
syringe. Brittany reminisces about
the "chew and spit" game she used to
play with her mother: "We'd buy bags
and bags of candy and just chew it
and spit it out. We just thought of it
as a good time."
During 10 intense weeks at the
center, Greenfield learned that while
societal pressures often trigger eating
disorders, they are actually mental ill-
nesses with grim statistics. Anorexia
is the deadliest of all psychiatric
disorders, according to the American
Journal of Psychiatry, with mortality
rates of up to 20 percent.
No statistics exist on Jewish women,
but experts say they may be particu-
larly vulnerable, in part, due to more
zaftig body types and the drive to
look all-American (i.e., svelte).
All seriously ill patients are tough
to treat: "Secrets and lies are a big
part of eating disorders, because you
have to hide your habits from friends
and family," Greenfield explains from
her Venice, Calif., studio. "At Renfrew,
women would clandestinely jog in
place in the shower, or conceal weights
in their clothing to cheat the scale
The center's rules, therefore, are
strict. When Polly arrives at the clin-
ic, staff members promptly search
her luggage and whisk away "con-
traband" such as cigarettes and pre-
scription drugs. In another scene, the
usually feisty Polly is obliged to eat a
cupcake for her birthday, which she
consumes slowly and with disgust.
Afterward, she cries bitterly.
Alisa also appears pained when
required to sketch a silhouette of
herself, which she draws as an obese
figure — though after a month at
Renfrew she is healthily trim, with
an uncanny resemblance to Natalie
Portman. She traces her eating dis-
order to age 7, when her pediatrician
declared her fat and she was placed
on a 1,000-calorie-per-day diet.
On camera, she does not discuss
how her Reform Jewish background
fueled her disease, but she answered
e-mailed questions through
Greenfield.
"Alisa believes that Jews are a
proud people; they are very con-
cerned about self-image and there
is a strong emphasis on education
and money:' the director says. "She
thinks that makes for more of a need
to overachieve and be perfect, which
can drive an eating disorder. So her
sense is that being Jewish contrib-
uted a lot to her [illness]."
The filmmaker, who also is Jewish,
relates to her subjects because she
was once obsessed with the scale. At
12, she began physically comparing
herself to the other girls at Camp JCA
Shalom in Malibu, Calif., and went on
to become a chronic teenage dieter.
At Harvard University, she "went on a
crash diet and lost 26 pounds, in the
process gaining so much confidence
that I threw myself into my first seri-
ous relationship:' she says.
Eventually Greenfield — named
one of 25 top photographers by
American Photo magazine — dedi-
cated much of her career to chroni-
cling how the Barbie-doll culture
scars women. But her 2002 book only
touched upon the life-threatening
topic of eating disorders, save for
several pictures snapped at Renfrew.
The artist remained haunted by one
of a gaunt patient standing back-
wards on a scale so as not to see her
weight gain.
In June 2004, Greenfield returned
to Renfrew with cinematographer
Amanda Michell to further explore the
subject, this time in a cinema verite-
style film. But she found that earning
patients' trust proved difficult.
After many setbacks, Greenfield
won them over by showing she would
turn the camera off whenever she
was asked to do so. Polly made the
request while on a suicide watch, but
changed her mind after the director
spent the night talking with her. She
allowed Greenfield to shoot her purg-
ing her breakfast the next morning,
an act that is almost always done in
secret and is forbidden at the center.
Alisa also purges on camera, but
expresses a moment of hope during
one group therapy session.
"For a fleeting moment I imagined
a better life she says. "And maybe
— pun intended — I can taste
recovery"
❑
Thin premieres on HBO 9-10:45
p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14. Check
your local cable listings for addi-
tional broadcasts.
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