First Look: Skinnyfat

The increasing affordability of filming equipment, not to mention the rise of crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter, has resulted in an explosion of creativity in independent filmmaking which, unfortunately, can be daunting prospect to pick through, and so No Ripcord presents First Look: an occasional series of features introducing you to short and independent films of note.

Described by Writer/Director Andy Bydelack as "edgy, irrelevant, and laughing all the way to the plastic surgeon", Skinnyfat is a short film which focuses on the dating and dieting exploits of Chaz (Jayson Jaynes) and Davy (Evan Johnson), a couple of gay San Francisco hipsters, mortified at the loss of their 28" waistlines.

Taking an acerbic, even gleefully tasteless, look at body image and eating disorders (amongst other targets), Skinnyfat's candy-coloured infomercials, gyms and doctors' offices places it firmly within the great gay tradition of camp.

Unsurprisingly, the film has struck a nerve with the ever-body conscious gay male community (where else other than the pink press would someone passing off their efforts to get in shape as a multimedia art project be taken seriously?). Already a hit on the festival circuit, where it has picked up awards and played to sold-out houses, Skinnyfat has also screened at the US' largest LGBT youth conference and as far afield as Indonesia.

Skinnyfat is available for rental and purchase at skinnyfatmovie.com; Bydalek has several projects in development, and can be found at andybydalek.com, facebook.com/andybydalek and on twitter.com/andybydalek.