" How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? "
Engagement
A film like Pearly Whites has a target audience. First, it would be mainly westerners since the west typically has more progressive ideas and audiences are more supportive of body positivity. It would also be mainly women since eating disorders mostly target younger women. The type of person who would relate to a film like this can be ageless since it goes through a couple decades of Marina's life, but I imagine it would be most popular among younger generations, like ages 16-25.
Pearly Whites challenges norms in films and would be sure to stir up discussion in its watchers. It goes against many ideas people associate with eating disorders and shows the weirder, darker parts that people are afraid to discuss or simply don't know about, and for that reason I believe it might resonate the most with people who are suffering with one.
While many films about eating disorders avoid the ugly and end up romanticizing the character's suffering, Pearly Whites wants to show all of it, to perform an autopsy on the condition and lay out every single aspect for watchers to see. I want to engage audiences by giving them multiple different perspectives to analyze, and, more importantly, give people who are struggling a sign that they are not alone.
Distribution
Pearly Whites isn't the type of film that would resonate with everyone. Lots of people, understandably so, wouldn't be comfortable watching something with such a sensitive subject matter, so I need to distribute in a way that targets the previously discussed target audience.
Since the target audience would mainly live in the west where body positivity is more accepted, I would ideally start by showing the movie at a massive American film festival like Sundance or the LA Film Festival. One movie I researched, Thirteen, premiered here and won an award before going on to become a cult classic. Releasing my film at a festival ensures that it is being seen by a large audience and, even if some people don't like the film, the target consumers are probably in the audience and could be interested in purchasing distribution rights.
I could then start releasing Pearly Whites in theaters in America, and depending on its success, into theaters internationally. The movie would likely have a rating of TV-MA due to its depictions of the disorder and Marina's other struggles throughout the movie.