Dwarfs: Not a Fairy Tale

Originally airing on HBO's America Undercover series, Bonnie Strauss and Lisa Abelow Hedley's Dwarfs: Not a Fairy Tale dispels myths surrounding dwarfs (or "little people"; "midget" is considered a derogatory term) while focusing on four individuals born with achondroplasia (the most common form of dwarfism, affecting in 1 in 40,000 births). We meet Bob Heinemann, a solitary nightwatchman disowned by his parents as a child, who enjoys dressing up as one of Santa's elves to entertain children; Martha Holland, a middle school teacher who dreams of marriage; Emily Sanford, a high school senior whose limb-lengthening operations were an "ordeal," but one she doesn't regret; and Michael Ain, a successful pediatric orthopedic surgeon, who went through terrible discrimination and condescension during medical school but today claims that "dwarfism doesn't even cross [his] mind until somebody else makes a point of it." While the anthology approach is not as satisfying, in my opinion, as a single solid narrative thread combining medical, cultural and personal history, Dwarfs--which also features illuminating clips from The Wizard of Oz, Freaks and Living in Oblivion--offers a penetrating glimpse into the falsehoods and realities of a lifestyle unfamiliar to most of us. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)