The making of Big Little Sis…

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July 17, 2023

By Jody Prusan

This can only be described as a passion project – I wanted to tell Doris Darden’s story because meeting her enhanced my life.

I arrived in NY from Los Angeles many many years ago to attend Hunter College and completed a long overdue and unfinished BA from CSUN California State University Northridge. At Hunter College I was enrolled in a “Theater for Disabilities” class for both abled and disabled actors.

It was my great good fortune to meet Doris Darden. Doris is 3’9 diagnosed with dwarfism from childhood and was in a wheel chair – we clicked instantly. Her positive and enthusiastic demeanor was engaging and infectious (in the good way). Seated in her mobile chair she towered above us with her determination and spirit. We participated in all activities, created original scenes through improvisation and both of us completed the course.

Over the next twenty years living in Manhattan, I would periodically see Doris zoom by in her wheel chair and would ask her to be a guest speaker wherever I was working with young people because her message was always uplifting – that her physical condition would never stop or define her. Doris never let me down and showed up at multiple locations around New York (I wonder to this day how she got to where I was working – she just always seemed to roll in right on time).

One year I was visiting Doris and her sister Tina on the Friday after Thanksgiving and I felt so much love from Doris and her sister that I said “now this feels like Thanksgiving”. Then I said “Doris I must tell your story”. And that is how we began a four-year journey of making a documentary about Doris. There were two cinematographers, one music composer and a whole lot of love from everyone involved –

I was so delighted to get to know the Darden Family. When Jody first was talking about Doris and the shooting of the film I was excited about the project, but what I didn’t expect was how much I ended up caring about not just Doris but her sisters as well, not to mention her sons Atu and Solomon and of course their mother Mama Dear. Getting to show who these women are and the mark they’ve left on this world was such a big part of the joy of this project, and I’m so happy the finished film has been appreciated by those who see it. We all love you, Big Little Sis!!

Brandon Culp

Cinematographer

“The bulk of the editing for Big Little Sis was completed in April and May of 2020, while many of us were still isolating. One thing I remember always resonating with me was Doris and Arthene and Jody, everyone involved really, having the most wonderful and optimistic attitudes! It made the editing process into something I was eager to return to again and again!”

Ephraim Birney

Editor/Film Maker

I called upon great talent and dear friends to help me tell this story and I could not have done this without Roosevelt Credit (music composer), Brandon Culp (director/film maker) and Ephraim Birney (editor and cinematographer).

I loved that the family was real. The everyday life, growing up in the household, and the life lessons shared. It was a real family dealing with life issues, and how to overcome so many obstacles. It was a pleasure to be brought in to add music to the film. I was honored to be a part of the telling of the story through sound. The added bonus of working with Blake and Nathan to create our version of Just A Closer Walk with Thee was healing and fun for us as well.

Smiles, Roo

It was 100% self-produced by me and a project that I will always be proud of. I met all four of the Darden Sisters and helped to celebrate Doris’s 75^th birthday. We had an online screening at Goddard during Covid and the film has won two awards. It’s my gift to you as Doris is a gift to us all.

Jody Prusan

What I want everyone to know about me, when Jody asked about doing a film about me and my life.

Although I was short in stature that I could function like everyone.

As my mother told me “You can do any and everything that everyone else can to do, just have to do it a little differently and the job will get done. My sisters never saw me as being short, only when someone in the street would bother me and they would correct them right away.

I also felt I was introduced to three more people in my life that I feel will be friends to the end of my life. “Thank you, Jody, for introducing me to the world.”

Doris Darden

Here is the film