Main content

No Bigger Than A Minute

'My name is Steven. I am 48 years old and I'm a dwarf.'

So begins Steven Delano's unusual new documentary, NO BIGGER THAN A MINUTE. What follows is neither an academic discourse on the life and times of America's 'little people,' nor a project in self-affirmation in the face of social discrimination -- though the film includes healthy doses of both of these. 'No Bigger Than a Minute' has tongue-in-cheek re-enactments, a music score structured after Delano's own mutated DNA sequence, short-statured Hollywood stars such as Peter Dinklage ('The Station Agent') and Meredith Eaton ('Family Law') and musicians, rappers, comedians, novelists, doctors and ordinary folk.

NO BIGGER THAN A MINUTE also follows the twists in the story of dwarfism today. Scientists have isolated the genetic mutations for the majority of dwarf cases, and, most astoundingly, have developed tests that detect these mutations in the earliest stages of a fetus's development. The question is inescapable: Is dwarfism a chronic handicap to be eliminated? Or is it valuable human diversity?