Documentarian Greenfield back in Boston

Lauren Greenfield was born in Boston, raised in Los Angeles, and educated at Harvard University, where she studied film in the 1980s, even traveling the world for nine months as part of the visual anthropology program. But after she graduated she put movies on the back burner and focused on photography.

Greenfield shoots people in their element, from the rich in China to families in LA food courts to teens growing up fast in Milan. Her photo essay "Girl Culture," about young women's relationships with their bodies, was turned into a book and touring exhibit, and made a stop at Tufts University a few years back.

She's been successful with that part of her career: In 2005, American Photo magazine put Greenfield and the other photographers of the VII Photo Agency third on its list of the 100 Most Important People in Photography, just behind Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein of Getty Images at No. 1 and Annie Leibovitz at No. 2. (Greenfield's husband, Frank Evers, also a Harvard grad, is VII's managing director.)

So when she decided to focus on anorexia and bulimia among women and make her first movie, she was stretching into territory that was both new and familiar.

"I had photographed there a few times," Greenfield says of the Renfrew Center, a residential treatment facility in Florida where the documentary ultimately was shot. "But it was very difficult to get access and get trust. We were in development on the idea for two years, talking to Renfrew, talking to their staff, talking to HBO. We did a development film to see how the process would work or not work."

"Thin," the documentary Greenfield made with director of photography Amanda Micheli, another Harvard graduate, is another strong work. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the Independent Film Festival of Boston last April, and the Documentary Jury Prize at the Newport International Film Festival in June. In November, it debuted on HBO, and it continues to play on the station.

"Thin" and Greenfield will be back in Boston this week for three presentations featuring post-film Q&A: Monday at 7 p.m. at the Harvard Film Archive; Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre; and Wednesday at 7 p.m. at 8 St. Mary's St. in Boston, in an event sponsored by the BU's Photographic Resource Center .

The Brattle show is hosted by the Harris Center for the Education and Advocacy in Eating Disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital, whose director, Dr. David Herzog, wrote an essay for Greenfield's 2006 book, "Thin." (Greenfield has also developed an exhibit around the topic that includes large-scale portraits, excerpts from the women's diaries, and video clips. That exhibit opened last week at the Women's Museum in Dallas.)

Greenfield says the film and her other projects have tended to orbit around the themes of how women relate to each other and themselves. "Renfrew had all this interesting 'girl culture ' going on between the women," she says. "The same dynamics as between teenagers, but in a more intense way, because they were in treatment: competition and comparing, bonding and friendship, drama and gossip and cliques."

The web site thindocumentary.com has details on the film, screenings, and Greenfield's work.

FILMMAKER RESOURCE: The monthly Filmmakers Workshop program this week is highlighting a new Internet-based video editing system that lets people do digital editing online. The technology is called the Portalvideo System and produced by a Wellesley company. It will be demonstrated on Wednesday at 6:30 pm at the Bernard Toale Gallery, 450 Harrison Avenue, in Boston. An RSVP is required: contact susi@documentaries.org.

MINI-GRANTS AVAILABLE: The Color of Film Collaborative is looking to give away some cash. The group is seeking proposals for projects in the development or production stage, and has awards of $500 to $1,500. You must be a member of the collaborative to apply. Proposals are due March 15; information is at coloroffilm.com.

SCREENINGS OF NOTE: The popular "Metropolitan Opera: Live In HD" series has added encore presentations and additional movie theater venues for its upcoming live broadcasts. "The First Emperor" will be rebroadcast on March 7 at 7 p.m. and March 11 at 1:30 p.m. The next live event will be the simulcast of "The Barber of Seville" on March 24. Participating theaters include the Framingham 15 and Solomon Pond Stadium in Marlborough. Tickets are on sale now -- many of the venues sold out previous shows (metoperafamily.org/hdlive) .

Susan Buice and Arin Crumley's "Four Eyed Monsters" plays at 7 p.m. tomorrow night at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Over 240 people put in a request at the filmmakers' website for the award-winning movie -- about their art-project-turned-relationship -- to come to Boston (617-734-2500 and coolidge.org).

Indie filmmaker Rufus Chaffee set his feature film "Divine Intervention" in the town of Ware and used an entirely Boston-based cast and crew. The story looks to be a mélange of super-sexed teens, gunplay, and a crackhead who gets some religion and makes recruitment into his cult his new day job. The tagline is "Sin . . . While You Can!" "Divine Intervention" has its premiere tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Regent Theatre in Arlington (divineinterventionfilm.com).

The hottest TV show in Israel will be on the big screen in Boston for a one-night event. The Boston Jewish Film Festival is hosting four episodes of the award-winning "In Treatment (Betipul)" at the Museum of Fine Arts on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Yael Hedaya, a writer for the show, will be attending. The story is about a psychotherapist and his patients. It's being adapted by HBO into an English-language version that will star Gabriel Byrne (617-267-9300 and mfa.org/film).

And the Harvard Film Archive is presenting a new series about the Spanish Civil War, curated by Harvard professors Brad Epps and Susan Suleiman. It opens on Saturday with a 7 p.m. screening of Hungarian documentarian Peter Forgás's "El Perro Negro: Stories from the Spanish Civil War," which draws from the home movies made by two men on opposite sides of the conflict. At 9 p.m., it's director Guillermo del Toro's 2001 "The Devil's Backbone," described as an allegory set in a children's orphanage. Consider it a companion piece to del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," which is up for six Oscars in tonight's Academy Awards (617-495-4700 and hcl.harvard.edu/hfa).

Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com.