Doors 7:30p
Program 8:00p
Tickets $12

UnionDocs
352 Onderdonk Ave
Ridgewood, NY

We’re thrilled to welcome filmmaker Julie Forrest Wyman for a special screening of her powerful and deeply personal new film, THE TALLEST DWARF screened in conjunction with her participation in It’s Practical, It’s Tactical: Community-Based Documentary a weekend long workshop led by artist Tara Mateik.

In THE TALLEST DWARF, Wyman charts her journey of discovery within the little people (LP) community at a pivotal moment in the evolution of dwarf identity. As she investigates long-circulated family rumors about “partial dwarfism,” Wyman learns she has hypochondroplasia—an inherited condition that marks her as part of a disappearing body type.

What begins as a personal inquiry quickly expands into a collective act of resistance. Wyman joins forces with a vibrant group of dwarf artists to confront the legacy of spectacle, objectification, and the lingering shadows of eugenics. Together, they reclaim the narrative—laughing, dancing, and creating films that speak back to a culture eager to alter bodies it doesn’t understand.

Visually rich, emotionally resonant, and laced with sharp humor, THE TALLEST DWARF is as much about identity and belonging as it is about medical ethics and social change. It challenges us to think differently about difference—and to question who gets to decide what kind of bodies should exist in the future.

Julie Forrest Wyman will join Tara Mateik in conversation following the screening to discuss the film’s making, the politics of representation, and what it means to stand at the intersection of personal story and collective history.

This film will be screened with OPEN CAPTIONS. Venue Accessibility is as follows: The screening room itself is wheelchair & scooter accessible, but there are 3 steps that lead to the restroom and bar. The venue will provide adaptations to ensure that restrooms and counters are accessible for LP attendees.

Don’t miss this unforgettable evening of film, reflection, and radical visibility.

Program

The Tallest Dwarf by Julie Forrest Wyman

92 minutes, English, United States, 2025

THE TALLEST DWARF charts filmmaker Julie Forrest Wyman’s quest to find her place within the little people (LP) community at a moment when dwarf identity is poised to radically change. As Julie unpacks the rumors of “partial dwarfism” in her family, she discovers that she has hypochondroplasia dwarfism and that hers is the last of a body type she has inherited. She joins forces with a group of dwarf artists to confront the legacy of being fetishized and put on display. Together, they embody their full humanity as they dance, laugh, and create films that reclaim a complicated history and speak back to the echoes of eugenics in the newly emerging pharmaceutical interventions that make little people taller. Visually striking, humorous, and touching, THE TALLEST DWARF is both personal and political – inviting audiences to rethink identity, disability, and what it means to belong in a world that wants to change who you are.

Program Duration: 92 mins

Bios

Julie Forrest Wyman is a filmmaker, writer, and Associate Professor of Cinema and Digital Media at UC Davis. Her work engages issues of embodiment, body image, and the possibilities and problematics of media spectatorship—all informed by her experience of living with hypochondroplasia dwarfism. Her 2012 documentary STRONG! premiered at AFI Silverdocs and was broadcast nationally on PBS’s Emmy Award–winning series Independent Lens, where it won the series’ Audience Award. Wyman’s films—including FatMob (2016), Buoyant (2005), and A Boy Named Sue (2000)—have aired on Showtime, MTV’s LOGO-TV, and have been exhibited on five continents. Her work has received support from Sundance, Sandbox, IDA, SF Film Society, Points North, ITVS, the Creative Capital Foundation, The Princess Grace Foundation, California Humanities, and NEH. She has been a fellow at the UC Davis Feminist Research.

Tara Mateik is a multimedia performance artist and videomaker whose work critically reenacts historical moments of collective transformation. These reenactments are not passive recreations of the past, but political interventions into our understanding of history, working with queer iconography to explore the ways in which history is written on, and by, actual bodies. Performing with other gender nonconforming bodies, his work disrupts participants’ expectations and generates new political potentialities—in essence, to pervert the audiovisual archive.

His current projects include Double Take, a series of video tableaus restaging archival photographs from significant moments in queer and trans history. Double Take: ACT-UP / Trump Tower, NY / October 31, 1989, for example, brought together an intergenerational group of artists, activists, and housing advocates to reenact a photograph of a protest at Trump Tower by the ACT UP Housing Committee (including the photographer and participants in the original event). Hard Pill to Swallow: A Valley of the Dolls Case Study is a multimedia performance and video project exploring the legacy of the 1967 film based on Jacqueline Susann’s novel. Through reenactments, video screen tests, and animation, Hard Pill provides an intervention into Hollywood’s longstanding exploitation of young stars.

Mateik’s work has been exhibited at venues including SFMOMA, MoMA PS1, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Dixon Place, The Kitchen, and Participant Inc., and he has been awarded support from Creative Capital (2008), Franklin Furnace (2013-2014), and the MacDowell Colony (2018). His videos are distributed by Video Data Bank.