Dove and Shonda Rhimes release inspiring film starring the creator of ‘Fat Girls Dance’
The first film to come out of Dove’s Real Beauty Productions stars Cathleen Meredith, the woman behind the global Fat Girls Dance movement.
Dove launched Real Beauty Productions earlier this year with Shonda Rhimes, writer and producer of TV hits Grey's Anatomy and Scandal, on board as creative director. According to Dove, the beauty brand – which is celebrating its 60th birthday this year – launched the production studio to “expand the definition of beauty by putting the power of storytelling into real women’s hands.”
In its first film, Dove tells the story of why Meredith started Fat Girls Dance and how she continues to use the power of dance to make herself and others feel more beautiful.
Each week, Meredith and other members of the Fat Girls Dance squad learn a choreographed dance and then post it online, encouraging other women to do the same. In the film, Meredith says that she started the movement as a “radical act of fearlessness that, in my opinion, shouldn’t have to be that radical.”
“It almost immediately went viral,” she says in the video. “There were plus size women everywhere who were like, ‘whoa, i’ve never seen anything like this before, and you are helping me deal with issues with my body.’”
The film, which was directed by documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus, was produced by an all-female crew. United Entertainment Group and Edelman worked on creative and production.
Dove has released its first Real Beauty Productions films just weeks after it was widely criticized and mocked for its recent line of limited edition body wash bottles that are shaped like different women’s body types.