The Tallest Dwarf

Directed by Julie Forrest Wyman

United States | 2025 | 92 minutes | English | Order No. W251318

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.

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SYNOPSIS

THE TALLEST DWARF charts filmmaker Julie 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.

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

  • South by Southwest (SXSW) 2025
  • San Francisco International Film Festival:
  • DC/DOX Film Festival:

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Julie Forrest Wyman

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. (09/18)

Credits: 

Directed, Written and Produced by  

Julie Wyman  

Produced by  

Lindsey Dryden, Shaleece Haas, Jonna McKone  

Edited & Written by  

Debra Schaffner  

Original Score by  

The Octopus Project  

Consulting Editor  

Maya Daisy Hawke  

Executive Producers  

Sofiya Cheyenne, Nic Novicki, Jess Devaney, Anya Rous, Carrie Lozano, Lois Vossen 


Quotes & Press

 “A heartfelt documentary that takes audiences on a journey. “The Tallest Dwarf” will help you see the world differently.” - Louisa Moore, Screen Zealots 


“It’s a film that gives you insight into an underrepresented group of people. But it also makes visible their humanity and the way they want to tell their own story.”  - Cara Ogburn, Milwaukee Film 

 

“Wyman’s film is less about the drama of diagnosis, and more about understanding identity through family, history, and science.” - Connie Wilson, Weekly Wilson 


“The Tallest Dwarf also creates fascinating cinema out of various marginalized perspectives colliding... Wyman chronicles folks debating whether or not a panel for little people should have financing from a pharmaceutical company that wants to 'cure' them.” - Lisa Laman, Culturess 


“More than integration into society, what the LP community wants is respect and dignity—to live free from judgment and the gaze of others, with appropriate access and the same opportunities as everyone else.” - Victoria Hope, Amelie Magazine 


“An enlightening odyssey that uncovers the secret power and pride that comes when being part of a tight-knit community.”  -  Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News / East Bay Times 


“A unique and essential perspective on a world often marginalized and misunderstood. A deep dive into the complexity of a community’s experience, brilliantly guided .”  - Victoria Hope, Amelie Magazine 


“The director deeply digs in… and presents no easy answers”  - Peter Wong, BrokeAssStuart.com 


“The Tallest Dwarf asks the viewer to consider important questions, like, ‘What if the culture created pathways for LPs to love and accept their bodies?’ and ‘What if LPs don’t want medical interventions that make them or their children closer to the norm?” - Virgie Tover, Forbes 

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