An intimate look at the weird and wonderful subculture of doll collecting – featuring a young mother who spends more money than the family earns to feed her habit; a Barbie-loving man who never left home; an animator who transforms dolls for an epic robot-porn film; and a married man who believes love dolls give him the best of both sex and art.

Living Dolls is a surprising, humorous and engaging documentary that opens the door to a fascinating array of collectors and their collections. It taps into why these colourful characters’ lives are ultimately shaped by their obsession. Some are loveable, others you may love to hate…

Debbie - married with two young children, believes her Ellowyne fashion dolls mirror her moods: ‘Most of the Ellowynes, if you look they aren’t really smiling… maybe I like that so much because… deep down that’s how I feel.’

Mike - playful but cloistered, always dreamed of Barbie but personally liked Ken: ‘I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs. We need something to do with our money. For me, it’s that girl in pink… Just talking about Barbie lifts my spirits.’

Michael - aka Robo-Mike, is a talented artist who seems to have lost his way: ‘Animating this stuff is sort of like playing with dolls. They’re inanimate objects disguised as robots, imitating humans.’

David – the Hugh Hefner of the silicon doll set, has a wife and a collection of love dolls; he puts the dolls on a pedestal and then tries to get on it himself: ‘This is not a vibrator, this is an artificial replica of a real human being. A blow-up doll is one thing, but these are art.