Laurel Burns is a woman who very much stands out in Beijing. Beautiful and very tall (183cm), she is also extra-plus size, weighing in at 530 points. Laurel has come to China with two dreams: to become an actress and to find romantic love. When filmmaker Louis Hothothot asked if he could make a film about her, she replied without reservation: “Yes! You can film fucking everything about me.”
Laurel collaborated with Hothothot from the word go, mainly because she wanted to see herself clearly from other people’s perspective, the director observed in Utrecht. “I think that’s my best motivation to make this film.”
That said, there was another factor driving Hothothot. “As someone born in 1980s China, I belong to the first generation no longer suffering from hunger,” he says. “Yet the cultural imprint of starvation remains. In my childhood, being fat meant being healthy and wealthy. My parents took me to hospitals to gain weight and disciplined me for being too feminine. I was also born illegally under the One Child policy; a child whose existence felt like a political mistake. Maybe that’s when my fascination with (big) bodies began.”
While Chinese society embraced fatter boys, the ideal female body form was defined by its slimness, which is why an outsider like Hothothot felt particularly drawn to Lauren.
“Big Dreams is a hybrid film about feeling lost and the lack of love,” Witfilm producer Pam Blankert tells Business Doc Europe. Blankert works alongside company CEO Iris Lammertsma. “It explores the tension between being boundless in order to feel less alone, and setting boundaries in order to navigate life. Laurel and Louis are opposites, but also each other’s mirrors. The questions the film poses to the audience are the same questions Louis, as a filmmaker, asks himself: What lies beneath his fascination with Laurel? And what does that reveal about him?”
“Louis deliberately places this deeply personal quest into a broader social and political context,” Blankert continues. “The film addresses the undercurrents of global shifts such as the rise of Trump and the growing nationalism in the United States. These developments form not only the background to Laurel’s departure from America, but also act as a catalyst: in a society where racial tensions, body judgments, and class labels are pervasive, her flight to China becomes both an act of resistance and of self-preservation.”
“In Big Dreams, Louis connects the personal with the political. The film reveals how societal forces seep into the most intimate domains of friendship, identity, and desire. How do you shape your sense of self when you never fully belong anywhere?” the producer asks.
Financiers on the film so far include the Netherlands Film Fund and the NPO Fund, while Cinema Delicatessen will handle the domestic distribution. HUMAN has acquired the Dutch broadcast rights. Sales are handled by First Hand Films.
“Big Dreams benefits from a solid and realistic plan. The project is guided by an experienced producer [Iris Lammertsma] and supported by respected partners, ensuring both artistic freedom and professional rigor,” Blankert tells BDE. “The film’s international scope—shot in China, the United States, and the Netherlands—adds value for festivals and distributors, while the hybrid style and unique perspective offer clear positioning in the art-house and documentary markets. Financing has been carefully structured step by step, building trust with the funds and our broadcaster HUMAN, and the production team has a proven track record in managing complex, cross-border projects. Together, these elements ensure that Big Dreams is not only an artistically powerful project but also a feasible and sustainable production with strong international potential.”
The visual look of the film combines intimate observational camerawork with “a strong, poetic visual language,” the producer adds. “Handheld, close-up images capture raw vulnerability. Documentary scenes are interwoven with animation that visualizes inner worlds and memories, adding a dreamlike, hybrid layer to the film. A poetic and reflective voice-over, spoken by Louis himself, guides the viewer and blurs the line between documentary reality and subjective reflection yet always retains Louis’s distinct visual signature. The result is a hybrid, cinematic experience that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.”
Blankert also confirmed that the film is in early pre-production and that Witfilm hopes to start shooting in December 2025, looking to deliver the finished work in 2028. “In the upcoming period we will be developing our festival and release strategy with our sales agent First Hand Films.”
Amsterdam-based Hothothot further expressed his surprise as to how much his life truly mirrors that of Lauren, and vice versa. “Different origins, but similar wounds: neither of us accepted our own bodies; both of our childhoods were full of self-doubt,” he says. “We both left home to build new lives abroad and pursue artistic dreams. We both suffer from the loneliness of living in a foreign country while enjoying its freedom.”
“After five years of research, I see Laurel in a very different way. Behind her extreme openness, there is over self-protection. Behind her braveness, there is rebellion. Behind her strong desire to be seen, there are toxic self-doubts,” he told the NLWave25 professional audience. “The extreme complexity [of] humanity fascinates me to make this film. In the end, I discovered her story is also my story, and our intimate friendship also became a big part of this film.”
