“The Tallest Dwarf” was a 92 minute documentary helmed by Julie Forrest Wyman, who directed and produced. Debra Schaffner wrote and edited the film which screened at SXSW on March 10, 2025, at 9 p.m. Many Little People populate the scenes as Julie and other members of the group bond and talk about their feelings towards being far shorter than average. The Octopus Project provided the original score.
Julie has a burning desire to find out if she may be a dwarf, but, as we learn, there are many different types of dwarfs. It will take genetic testing to really confirm if she has Achondroplasia or some other form of what I hesitate to call a disease, because the Little People in this movie do not view their condition as “a disease.” As Julie says, “It’s really hard to feel like your body is wrong.”
Julie’s Quest for Identity
Julie talks at length with her father, Forrest Paul Wyman and her mother, Genevieve McGuffin, about her desire to find out if she is really and truly a dwarf. We see Julie and her father measuring from their chin to the top of their heads and from their ribs to their middle fingers. That is a tenth of the entire body and, yes, they are both “off” about 10%. There is no history of dwarfism in the family that anyone can point to, but 80% of dwarfs are born to normal-sized parents. The dramatic tension throughout the film is contingent upon Julie waiting to receive the results of the genetic testing she decides to undergo.
She does have a FGFR3 mutation, as it turns out, but what does that mean? It turns out to mean Hypchondroplasia or Hypoplasia, although Julie is tall enough to “pass.” There’s really not much tension in this “reveal.” After all, the title of the piece is “The Tallest Dwarf” and it is highly unlikely that the Director, in today’s society, would be using that term if it were not supported by science. Otherwise, as with another SXSW film I saw about white people pretending to be Indians (“The Beguiling”), she’d face intense criticism for pretending to be something she’s not. Julie can “pass” in society, as she is a tall dwarf.
PERSONAL STORIES
“The Tallest Dwarf” at SXSW 2025. (Photo credit by Gabriella Garcia-Pardo)
Julie shares old home movies of herself growing up. She is tall, by dwarf standards, and only her arms and legs appear short. She has kept a journal throughout her adolescence and, at age 12, while praising her thick hair and her hands, she knows she is “different” and wants longer legs and also hopes to lose weight. Julie finds herself always “struggling to accept the body I have:” She (repeatedly) vows to go from 140 pounds to 120 pounds.
Living with Dwarfism: Personal Narratives
That constant struggle to make her body conform to what the world feels is “normal” and “acceptable” is something that most of us can relate to, whether we are short, tall or of average height. The controversial trans debate in society today would be another example of people of all genders struggling with body image. The sexual orientation dilemma that many face seems a part of everyday life that has played out forever in movies and real life. Indeed, one of the most powerful documentaries I ever saw was an Iranian film entitled “Be Like Others” from Director Tanaz Eshaghian in 2008. (available on Prime Video; Highly Recommended.)
As the President of the Little People of America organization—founded in 1957 by Billy Barty— says, (a good-looking young man named Mark), “I do not suffer from dwarfism. I suffer from the mistreatment imposed on me by my dwarfism.” Mark is, in fact, an actor, and says that he chose acting as a career “to control how people thought of me.” He seems resigned, but frustrated, by the fact that any movie he has ever had a role in denied him a close-up. He was always shot wide to reveal his stature. But, says the Little People spokesman, “When you’re doing a Dr. Pepper commercial and you are dressed as an elf and you only have one line, it really doesn’t matter.”
DWARFISM FACTS
How short do you have to be to be considered a dwarf? Answer: 4’ 10”
What is the term for dwarfs whose body parts are proportionate? Answer: Pituitary dwarfs. This particular form of dwarfism scientists found a way to fix. Dr .Herbert Evans and Dr. Eberly Sheridan in 1935 and Dr. Theodore T. Zuck in 1933 spoke of pituitary dwarfs as “specimens that needed to be fixed.” And they were able to do so, via scientific advances. Julie refers to this discovery as “the canary in the coal mine.” Do pituitary dwarfs want to be “fixed?”
MORAL DILEMMAS
While almost all of the dwarfs in the Little People of America group feel that they are “a marginalized community”, they seem to agree that science providing a relief from spinal stenosis and bowed legs is a good thing. Mention is made of the research in the 70s at the University California in San Francisco into growth hormones, using cadaver pituitary glands. The FDA fast-tracked synthetic growth hormones and Genentech, between 1989 and 1994, and began a dwarf measuring program in conjunction with this research. On July 29, 1994, Dr. Wimu and Dr. John Wasmuth at the University of California in Irvine discovered the gene for dwarfism.
This brought on a heavy-duty moral discussion, including, “What should we test for and who(m) should we test?’
Normal-sized parents are shown struggling about what to do about their child’s lack of height. Some patients underwent as many as 14 operations, like the 3’ 10” Chan, who chose to undergo the repetitive surgeries to lengthen her legs. This choice is left to the individuals and the families to wrestle with. Some seem to want to remain the way they were born. Some would do anything to be taller because—let’s face it—there are a lot of things that are more difficult when you are very short, including driving a car.
There is a heated debate about accepting money from pharmaceutical companies, which some of the members of the Little People of America obviously consider an organization that wants to exterminate them.
CONCLUSION
This one contained a lot of food for thought, and a lot of information on a subject about which I knew very little, going in. Good luck to the Little People of America and to all the rest of us in America in 2025.
