MEGAN GILL

ABOUT OUR FILM

Elevator Pitch: The day of her senior performance, Gemma, a dedicated and talented musical theatre major, struggles with the effects of toxic body image standards that have trickled down from Broadway into her collegiate musical theatre program.

The Story: Through an intimate day-in-the-life snippet of, college musical theatre student, Gemma’s world, we examine the destructive effects of societal body image standards and just how impressionable young adults can be. This story is based on true events and was developed alongside four of my close peers. Body dysmorphia and eating disorders are prevalent in young people. The root question is: how do we fight for change within this system? Cue: A Broadway Body. I turned the adversity I was faced with in my youth, and the adversity I witnessed my peers experience throughout my own college career, into this story to shed light on what goes on behind the closed doors of collegiate dance studios, practice rooms, musical rehearsals, and how they influence the way these young people exist in the world.

Who I Am: As a storyteller, this film is my creative baby, but at the heart is the social impact I'm hoping to leave with viewers. It was extremely important that we brought together a mostly female-presenting team to bring this story to life. This story is for women everywhere who can't or couldn't speak up or contradict those working to uphold these very body "ideals."

Our journey began in 2021, when I wrote the script, crowdfunded, and shot the film. We had our world premiere at LA Shorts International Film Festival in July 2023, and have since been in multiple festivals. Megan was nominated for Best Actress at Atlanta Women's Film Festival. We are currently in search of a forever home for this film!

Currently in the works is the A Broadway Body: Continued Conversations podcast, where I will continue the important and impactful convos that were started while I was in development, crowdfunding, and preproduction on the film back in 2021.