![]() ![]() While doing homework she came across a YouTube page titled “The World’s Ugliest Woman.” She clicked on it: Someone had posted a video of her, and hundreds of vicious comments had been written. At 17, “I was on the high road,” she says. Now 26, she weighs about 63 pounds.ĭespite the disfiguring effects of the disease and some ostracization in grade school, she grew up happily. ![]() From birth, her illness altered her features and left her body stick thin. Lizzie Velasquez was born with a rare syndrome that prevents her from gaining weight. Indeed, there seems to be little this woman can’t vanquish. The characters and the story compel our attention, but the film runs out of steam before the end.The makers of “A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story” leave a few too many questions unanswered, but their subject’s immense optimism steamrolls through the documentary’s shortcomings. ![]() One wonders if A Brave Heart might have been more effective as a short film than as a feature. Late in the film, Lizzie visits a doctor to learn more about her health problems, but this issue probably should have been explored more thoroughly. Even though it runs just 78 minutes, it still seems drawn-out. The one problem with the film is that once it has established the issues and the outline of Lizzie’s story, it keeps hitting the same theme. Her family members come across not as saints but as decent people who never wavered in their support of their daughter. Her father is a teacher who worked in the same elementary school that Lizzie attended, and the film demonstrates what a difference it can be for a bullied child to have a nurturing home environment. Here the film pays tribute to Lizzie’s parents. Director Sara Hirsh Bordosets out not just to honor Velasquez but to underscore some of the horrors of the Internet, which allows and encourages a new kind of hate speech.īeyond this, the film examines the forces that allowed Velasquez to surmount her own personal difficulties and the cruelty in the larger culture. In 2013 she addressed a TED conference in Texas and went on to become an internationally recognized anti-bullying spokesperson. The remarkable thing is that Lizzie never allowed the hostility to defeat her. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |