A woman is smothered by the oppressive control of body dysmorphia and body image struggles, stifled and contorted into the darkness of her own self-loathing. But when she is finally able to reject the societal expectations of impossible beauty standards, she mentally metamorphosizes to embrace the beauty in her imperfection.
The film is an experimental poem-short exploring the experience of body relational mental illness through the lens of Renaissance women’s bodies. Reclaiming the Renaissance art movement back from the male gaze and recontextualising it from the female point of view, to showcase the power in seeing beauty in all forms regardless of size.

The director Claudia Lee says: 'I wanted to make ‘Bodily Renaissance’ as a response to reaching a place of healing from my own long struggle with body image issues. It felt important to try and bring the conversation out of the shadows because the sad reality is that so many women have a difficult relationship with their bodies but theres so much shame involved that people suffer in silence, myself included before I got help. It was crucial we worked with a female crew to create the film with an authentic and nurturing approach, and I really believe you can feel it in the final film. Shooting on 16mm was a great luxury but one that seemed vital in capturing the Renaissance look and feel that the film springboards from, creating frames that have a beautiful painterly quality.'