Touches You

Memorable, crazy movie

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

Oh look, two brave girls standing up to a tyrannical government because they got their feelings hurt talking about their weight. This is not a documentary, it is a one sided piece pushing an agenda. The BMI is a tool to get people discussing health in a country with a major obesity problem. But these girls are more concerned about their feelings getting hurt than discussing the real problem of obesity. They think should have the right to choose not to be healthy and choose to limit others discussions about BMI. This documentary reminded me of when people say fox news is fair and balanced, while ignoring the obvious propaganda being pushed. This girl has an agenda to push about the overreach of the government. Essentially her argument is we should make no attempt to educate people on obesity because it hurts peoples feelings to find out they are overweight and unhealthy.She thinks people should have the right not to take a BMI test. Should they be able to opt out of being weighed or their height measured?

I had the privilege of seeing this documentary at a screening at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. I had plenty of homework to get finished that night, but I don't regret seeing this film one bit. Bailey Webber has truly created a masterpiece with The Student Body. This director-participant documentary covers the controversial topic of BMI recording in schools. Bailey's high school sent letters home to families stating their child's BMI, and how the child's BMI corresponds to the government's standards of what a child's BMI should be. Immediately, a wise beyond her year's high schooler, Bailey Webber, saw the emotional distress this brought on her classmates, friends and their families. As opposed to accepting these ridiculous measurements by the state, Bailey Webber takes action, asking tough questions to the right people. The documentary follows Bailey on her journey for answers to very important questions: Who created this law? Why did they create this law? How did such a law come to be? Bailey does not limit her resources to her school district or even her state. She travels across the nation doing research and conducting interviews, and she doesn't stick to one side of the issue. She has multiple interviews from people with dissenting views which makes this documentary that much better. Overall, The Student Body kept me engaged through the entire film. Bailey Webber does an amazing job at taking a seemingly serious topic and adding some humor through first person narration, awkward senators, and asking every interview subject if they would like to be weighed for a BMI calculation (LOL). If you have the chance to see this film, see it. However, I wouldn't be surprised if you found this documentary while flipping through your channels here soon. It's most definitely something everyone in America should see. 10/10!!

"When a brave high school student takes a stand against state-mandated BMI tests of her peers, she finds herself in the middle of a heated national controversy". With an alarmingly increasing number of child obesity, you would think that a BMI test would *dare I say* be actually beneficial towards the health of students? Films like this that cater to peoples feelings and not facts make me gag. That being said, the film was a fairly average documentary at best and was obviously aimed at people with body confidence issues aka fat people that can't be bothered to do anything about their weight problems and would rather blame the government for 'fat shaming them'. TL;DR Films for fatties. Barely worth my 3 stars.

This was an interesting small documentary by a young and I hope upcoming documentary film maker. In the USA 20 states mandate students have their "BMI" (Body Mass Index) tested so as to gauge their student population's "health". But given that for anyone in the business of health it is known that BMIs are a useless number, that generally healthy and athletic people with good muscle mass register as obese with BMI as BMI does not distinguish between muscle weight and fat weight, it is highly surprising that any governing agency would take this path to assess the health of its youth.But beyond BMI being scientifically useless, the government then goes on to send fat shaming letters to the students involved along with their report cards! In the documentary, the BMI of legislators is also assessed when possible, revealing that only three of the dozens of people the documentarist interviewed had an "acceptable" BMI.This documentary spends a lot of time watching itself being made, like a lot of documentaries these days, rather than being focused entirely on content. Mind you, this is rendered necessary to reflect politicians' unwillingness to discuss public issues with the public. It does have some decent interviews with both pro-BMI advocates and doctors/health processionals who denounce it for its futility.The issue of obesity goes way beyond an individual's mindset, it is a societal mater, how our food culture is structured, how our sleep culture is structured, how our work culture is structured, how our environmental quality has suffered, how global diseases impact health, how global issues are made visible at the individual level.At one point, a pro-BMI advocate explains how great a tool it is since it is non invasive, quick, uncomplicated, and requires no blood test. But the truth is: Quality in, quality out (QIQO). If you develop evaluation systems with poor data, you get poor results.All in all a very decent documentary.