Naked on the Inside
There are two versions of this documentary available - one with six subjects (the feature version), and the television version that I watched, which has five. The subjects have been carefully selected, each having a different issue with their own self-image of their body. Traditionally structured as an edited set of talking heads, we gradually build up a image of each of Farrant’s subjects. Once a British postman, now a dancer, Dave Toole has no legs, and a nice line in self-deprecating humour. His relationship with his mother is delightfully dry and honest as the film explores his search for a girlfriend. Rick Stray, a young wife and mother from the Sunshine Coast believes her dishonesty in having an affair has led to her body’s production of cancer. We follow her no-holds-barred discussion of her cancer and the effect of its treatment on her body and image of herself. Meanwhile in Taipei, Marcus Van is a woman, “passing” as a man, teaching Sunday School. Shirley Sheffield is an American fat activist and founding member of The Padded Lilies, a synchronised swimming troupe of larger women. And honey Carre Otis, discusses her own struggle with weight and the fashion industry’s sexualisation of the female body.As with all documentaries in this style, some of the subjects are far more interesting than others. It all depends on how frankly they are prepared to answer the unseen interviewer’s questions. Also central to such a documentary’s success is what we might think of as the “star” quality of the players. Do they grab our attention as they talk into the camera? Here Farrant has employed an interesting technique in what is called the “self-portraits”. Each subject is left alone in a room with the camera and invited to strip down to their bare essentials while venting their own feelings about their body. For me, the effect of this was twofold. It was at once extremely intimate, yet also strangely contrived. I wondered about the connection the director was inviting us (and the subjects) to make between literal nakedness and an emotional baring of the soul. Does it necessarily follow that just because the body is without clothes and ornamentation that some inner truth will spring forth from that body, clearly articulating an epiphany about contemporary body image. For me, this technique also raised other questions about the camera as voyeur and at what point nudity on film becomes gratuitous, rather than informing the arc of the narrative. Perhaps this viewing discomfort was the point the documentary was trying to make, but for me it didn’t really enhance the film’s effect.The problem here was perhaps also one of identification. In her choice of subjects, Farrant has tried very hard to choose unusual stories, but in some cases they are so unusual that the everyday viewer is left with no foothold with which they might enter into these stories and find a point of connection. Arguably this is the difference between a good documentary and great one. At the end of bare on the Inside, I had an interesting pic of the five subjects. I was less sure I had gained any new insights about the contemporary culture of the body.
