More than 150 women will gather at the Light Cinema in Cambridge on today (International Women’s Day) to watch a special screening of Embrace – an independent film exploring the global issue of body loathing, and how to overcome it.
The special screening of the social impact documentary has been organised by local businesswoman Charlie Wall, founder of Purple Fitness and Cambridge Bootcamps; with support from the team at Light Cinema Cambridge; and Demand Film – the movie’s distribution company in the UK.
Embrace follows the travels of Taryn Brumfitt, an Australian mother of three, who spent two years flying around the world interviewing experts, women on the street, and well-known personalities about body image and the struggles women face when it comes to embracing their natural body shape.
Taryn decided to make the documentary in 2013 after posting an unconventional before-and-after photograph of herself on a social media platform. The ‘before’ picture showed Taryn in a bikini at a body building competition. The ‘after’ picture showed Taryn with a more natural body shape after she decided to ditch the punishing exercise regime that was making her unhappy and eating into precious family time.
The picture, which sparked an international media frenzy and was seen by more than 100 million people, led Taryn to found the Body Image Movement – a global crusade championing positive body image and teaching women about the value and power of loving their bodies from the inside out. As part of creating the Body Image Movement, Taryn decided to create a film and secured 9000 kickstarter pledges to help realise her ambition.
Commenting on her reasons for campaigning to bring the documentary to Cambridge, Charlie Wall, said: “I work with women every day to embrace their diversity and help them to overcome challenges in how they see themselves. This is a very powerful and inspiring story of one woman’s courage to look deep inside herself to see how amazing she isregardless of shape and size. This is a story for every body, young and old.You are enough, just the way you are, and pretty amazing too.”
Embrace had its world premiere at the 2016 Sydney Film Festival, where it made it into the festival directors’ top five picks and was nominated for the Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Best Documentary. Fifty screenings of Embrace are taking place across the UK to mark International Women’s Day.
The Cambridge screening of Embrace will take place at 6:30pm at the Light Cinema, Cambridge Leisure Park, Cambridge, CB1 7DY. Tickets for this special screening are still available and cost £11.50 with an additional booking fee of £0.75 per ticket. Tickets can be bought online at the following link: https://tickets.demand.film/event/1475