A Matter of fat

Duration: 77

Year Published: 1970

Creator: National Film Board of Canada

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: Representatives of body-contouring parlors, weight-watching clubs, summer camps and medical authorities comment on the misconceptions and malpractices of the slimming industry. Focuses on one man's efforts to shed 140 pounds by starvation under hospital observation.

Complete Record: A rather astonishing film showing how one man shed nearly half his body weight - 63 kg of it (140 pounds) - by complete starvation under hospital observation. What brought him to so desperate a course, and how he managed to cope with it, is told with candor and humor by the fat man himself. Lorne Greene narrates the rest. Between times, the film leaves Gilles Lorrain and his lonely struggle to examine what other overweight people are doing, singly or in groups, to reduce to more normal proportions. Medical authorities comment on some misconceptions and malpractices of the slimming industry. Narrated by Lorne Green. (Awards: Toronto; New York; Atlanta)