Over the last four years, I have been studying and writing about film and television at The University of Derby, during that time I have fallen in love with one particular genre of film, documentary. From Nanook of the North to Fahrenheit 9/11, my cinematic watchlist has been filled with unforgettable documentaries.

As I wrote essay after essay analysing documentaries, I decided it was finally time to try my hand at this factual type of filmmaking. But what would my subject be? Well, it wasn’t long until I had an idea. In September 2018, Tess Holiday went viral when she became the heaviest woman to ever grace the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. I was fascinated by the public’s reaction and decided to research further into the Tess Holiday.

In turned out that Tess Holiday was not only the figurehead of body positivity but also a movement called fat acceptance. I began to discuss this with a few friends, and they had never heard of the movement, and it was then I knew I had my stimuli. Fat Acceptance was interesting because juxtaposed everything I had known about obesity; I had a feeling I wouldn’t be the only person who felt like this. So with no budget and only a handful of friends to help, I decided to challenge my presumptions and document the world of fat acceptance.