Julie Wyman’s latest film, The Tallest Dwarf, invites us into a deeply personal and politically charged journey—one that challenges how we see disability, difference, and identity. A past grantee of our California Documentary Project, Wyman sets out to explore her place within the little people (LP) community at a moment when dwarf identity is facing radical transformation.
While sorting through family stories and the possibility of “partial dwarfism” in her lineage, Wyman realizes that she may represent the last of a particular inherited body type. But the film doesn’t stop at the personal—it expands through collaboration. Teaming up with a group of dwarf artists, she digs into the legacy of being fetishized, displayed, and too often misunderstood.
Together, they create films that push back against a long history of exploitation and the haunting legacy of eugenics—especially as new pharmaceutical treatments emerge with the goal of making little people taller. Their work doesn’t just critique; it reclaims. It offers bold new ways of seeing and insists on disability authorship as a powerful form of resistance.
The Tallest Dwarf is a reminder of what happens when artists lead the conversation about their own lives and communities. We’re proud to have supported this project through the CDP and to continue championing films that expand our collective understanding of what it means to be seen.
