Julie Wyman
Baltimore, MD
Julie Wyman's films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the National Film Theater (London), on Showtime and Logo Television, and at festivals on six continents. Her documentaries include Buoyant and A Boy Named Sue, the latter of which won the Sappho Best Documentary Award and was a GLAAD Award nominee for Best Documentary. Wyman's current project, STRONG!, received co-production support from the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and will broadcast nationally on PBS in 2012. Wyman holds an MFA from UC San Diego and is Professor of Cinema and Technocultural Studies at UC Davis.
STRONG!
Julie Wyman
Artist BioCheryl Haworth defies categories. A visual artist with a personality that has earned her the nickname “Fun,” she is also America’s top Olympic weightlifter, ranked well above all men and women on Team USA. But at a weight of 300 pounds, she doesn’t easily fit into standard chairs, clothing sizes or preconceptions. The film STRONG! explores the contradiction of a body that is at once celebrated within the confines of her sport and shunned by mainstream culture. Through Haworth’s journey, we learn not only about the sport of lifting weight, but also the state of being weighty: the material, psychological, and social consequences and possibilities of a having a body that doesn’t fit.