The Student Body

Very well done documentary describing a brave and persistent sixth grader's campaign to end state-mandated Body Mass Index (BMI) testing and fat-shaming letters sent to students with their results. My favorite scene is when the interviewer asks congressman Eric Kearney (after FINALLY getting an interview with him, which could almost be a documentary in itself) if she can measure *his* BMI.

Watch it, it's entertaining and you'll learn something!

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.

The Student Body is very well produced and cleverly organized. It is truthful and explores one topic thoroughly in a way that kept my interest. I began watching with some negative bias as to whether I was going to like how the subject was handled, but Holly Allen quickly won me over with her no-nonsense approach. I hope Ms. Allen is able to make many other documentaries on the subjects of health and politics. She certainly has a bright future ahead of her.

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.