Francis Ford Coppola is an incredible filmmaker, he helped change the face of cinema and I have a huge amount of respect for him, however I was reminded of this quote from Hearts of Darkness recently.

This was Coppola’s prediction about the future of cinema and that cheap video cameras will allow just about anyone to make movies:

“To me the great hope is that now these little 8mm video recorders and stuff have come out, some… just people who normally wouldn’t make movies are going to be making them, and – you know – suddenly, one day, some little fat girl in Ohio is going to be the new Mozart – you know – and? make a beautiful film with her little father’s camera…corder – and for once the so-called professionalism about movies will be destroyed. Forever. And it will really become an art form.”

It irks me beyond belief. I may be being slightly over-sensitive, but why does he have to refer to the ‘unlikely filmmaker of the future’ as being fat?

Is it more of an achievement due to her being fat? Does the analogy work because it’s more unlikely that it would be a ‘fat girl’?

‘Fat Girl in Ohio’ is now used as term within filmmaking and there are production companies and blogs named as such.  I hope there is a future in which the idea of a ‘fat’ girl succeeding isn’t seen as more unlikely than her thinner counterpart, and more to the point, people realise that it’s unnecessary.