By Lucie Schwartz
Sarah is a French college student who runs a "pro-Ana" blog, part of a global online community of young women sharing tips on living with anorexia. Valerie Boyer is a passionate French National Assembly legislator who is proposing a groundbreaking bill that aims to ban these online forums, issuing hefty fines and two-year prison sentences to their members. Complex, eye-opening, and extremely timely, ARRESTING ANA is the first film on a burgeoning movement that promotes self-starvation.
Pro-Ana websites are found in countries around the world, but France is the first to suggest regulating them. Combining in-depth interviews with medical and academic experts with video diaries by Sarah¡ªto whom "Ana," short for anorexia, is a friend, support system, and motivation to stay alive¡ªARRESTING ANA offers unprecedented access into anorexia's hidden underground and looks for effective solutions to ending this serious disease.
Featuring shocking quotes and images from pro-Ana sites and an engrossing soundtrack, this well-made documentary is crucial for not only students and teachers of media studies, but also provides important insight for psychologists, social workers, sociologists, and educators on who controls women's body issues, how young people are interpreting eating disorders today, and how issues of legality and freedom of speech are contested in a new media landscape.
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