1- How could you apply the resources to your own teaching practice?
It is clear to me that’s proposing films as a reference to students that portray disability positively and that take in consideration intersectionality in their portrayal is paramount.
Similarly, I also want to push my students to broaden the spectrum of the characters they create for their scripts. Indeed, I remember vividly a course in MA film where we, as tutors had to highlight to students that all the characters they had created for their scripts where young, beautiful and able bodies characters. Most of them were also white.
Highlighting the importance of positive representation to students is important if we want the next generation of filmmakers not to make the mistakes that were done before and to change societal perception of disability.
As Vilissa Thompson mentions in her interview with Sarah Blahovec “lack of representation really affects one’s self esteem and one’s ability to connect with all of their identities. It affects their ability to feel like they’re not alone and feel included in their disabled identity, in their “of color” identity, in their other identities they have.”[1] Lack of representation brings a lack of belonging and relevance. It isolates part of the population and place them on the fringe of society.
2- How could you integrate the research/ work your students do on this subject into your teaching/ professional practice?
Reading this article made me realise that I am not aware of any course that deal with this matter or any study my students are doing in order to tackle the subject.
Although these last years there has been a push to decolonise the curriculum, I have not seen or read anything that tackle the under representation of characters with disability in the curriculum let alone black disabled characters.
There is still a lot to be done to extend the curriculum so that it represents the diversity of our society. I will make sure that I reference to my students a variety of different films made by directors coming from all over the world and that deal with matters that include racism, sexism and disability. I will use these examples to make them realise the importance of being open to different identities, cultures and faith and the role they could play in making our societies more inclusive and open to intersectionality.
3- Can you cite examples?
There are many problems with the way the film industry deals with disability.
- Representation: In films it is often the case that a character who is disable is portrayed as a villain, a creep or as somebody who has not much to say. The disable character is never the main character. Rain Man is one of the very few films that I have seen where the story revolves around a disable character and it is interesting to notice that when the story does revolve around a disable character, that character is almost always white.
- Often disable characters will be played by able body actors or actresses who have not experienced disability discrimination and ableism. This also true for LGBTQ+ characters.
- There are very few disable people working in the film industry which regard (without openly saying it) disability as a burden that could potentially have a negative impact on the efficiency of production. When I started working in the film industry I used to hide my dyslexia as I knew it could have an impact on my employability.
Example:
Harriet (2019): the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes, whose courage, ingenuity and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.
Hollywood executives investigated for quite a while the possibility of transforming the character of Harriet Tubman into a white character played by a white actress. It is only once white actresses refused to play the part that Hollywood executives realised that there might be a problem in their approach. The film took seven years to be made.
Furthermore, Harriet Tubman used to suffer from hallucinations and seizures (most probably due to a head trauma in her youth) but she never got recognised or honoured as a disability activist. The film does mention her hallucinations but never portray her as a disable person.
