I, Am Daniel Blake

(from The Guardian 12 May 2016) With this movie Ken Loach establishes himself yet further as the John Bunyan of contemporary British cinema. Based on research and interviews by the screenwriter Paul Laverty, this movie tells the fictional story of Daniel Blake, a middle-aged widower in the North East (of England) who can’t work or get benefits after a near-fatal heart attack, and the story is told with stark and fierce plainness: unadorned, unapologetic, even unevolved. Loach’s movie offends against the tacitly accepted rules of sophisticated good taste: subtlety, irony and indirection. The film is not objective, and perhaps Loach and Laverty have signed up to Churchill’s maxim about refusing to be neutral between the fire brigade and the fire…

Full Guardian Review.

This is a powerfully affecting movie.  Set in the U.K. it is pertinent for audiences in other countries as well.  The movie is sober, infuriating and sad.  Practicing medicine in the U.S., I can resonate with the maddening bureaucracy. Physicians are almost nowhere to be seen here.  It seems like no one was running interference for Daniel Blake.  That may well be the way it usually is.

Edie and Thea: A Very Long Engagement (2009)

Forty-two years of romance, struggle and shared adventures finally culminate in marriage for lifelong lesbian couple Edie and Thea, who met in the 1960s and stayed together through the turbulent decades of activism and social change that followed. Looking at pictures from their past, the women marvel at simple triumphs -- buying their first house together -- and reminisce about the constant fear of exposure they once felt.   2009  61 minutes

Thea was disabled due to multiple sclerosis which adds another dimension to this movie.

This is a gentle, moving documentary.

The Sessions (2012)

The Sessions is a must see.  I could not say it better than the Movie Slut.  Here is a link to Mark O'Brien's article about working with a sex surrogate that the movie was based on.

The Intouchables

“The Intouchables,” based on a true story, is about two men — one rich, uptight and white; the other poor, exuberant and black — who become best pals in spite of their differences. It deals with quadriplegia, race and recovery of spirit.

It joins "The Sea Inside,""Whose Life is this Anyway," and "Martha In Lattimore" in dealing with the topic of quadriplegia.

A.O. Scott writes in his NY Times review: "It is possible to summarize the experience of watching “The Intouchables” in nine words: You will laugh; you will cry; you will cringe. The caricatures are astonishingly brazen, as ancient comic archetypes — a pompous master and a clowning servant right out of Molière — are updated with vague social relevance, an overlay of Hollywood-style sentimentality and a conception of race that might kindly be called cartoonish." 

Somehow, it all works!  The Intouchables is memorable cinema.

The MovieSlut's review is succinct and accurate.

The Boy in the Moon (2011)

by Ian Brown

From Amazon: Ian Brown’s son Walker is one of only about 300 people worldwide diagnosed with cardiofaciocutaneous (CFC) syndrome—an extremely rare genetic mutation that results in unusual facial appearance, the inability to speak, and a compulsion to hit himself constantly. At age thirteen, he is mentally and developmentally between one and three years old and will need constant care for the rest of his life.

Brown travels the globe, meeting with genetic scientists and neurologists as well as parents, to solve the questions Walker’s doctors can’t answer. In his journey, he offers an insightful critique of society’s assumptions about the disabled, and he discovers a connected community of families living with this illness. As Brown gradually lets go of his self-blame and hope for a cure, he learns to accept the Walker he loves, just as he is. Honest, intelligent, and deeply moving, The Boy in the Moon explores the value of a single human life.

Music Within (2007)

From NetFlix: After losing his hearing as a soldier during the Vietnam War, Richard Pimentel (Ron Livingston) returns to America, where he falls in with an unlikely circle of friends and finds a new calling as a spokesman for the disabled. His activist efforts eventually lead to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This inspiring and entertaining true story won the Audience Award at the 2007 AFI Dallas International Film Festival. 2007 93 minutes.

DJE: This is a fairly light-hearted discussion of important topics. The DVD has an interview with the protagonist, Richard Pimental, which is extraordinary (don't miss it!)

Elephant Man

New York Times Review (1980): John Hurt stars as John Merrick, the hideously deformed 19th century Londoner known as "The Elephant Man". Treated as a sideshow freak, Merrick is assumed to be retarded as well as misshapen because of his inability to speak coherently. In fact, he is highly intelligent and sensitive, a fact made public when one Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) rescues Merrick from a carnival and brings him to a hospital for analysis. Alas, even after being recognized as a man of advanced intellect, Merrick is still treated like a freak; no matter his station in life, he will forever be a prisoner of his own malformed body. Unable to secure rights for the famous stage play The Elephant Man, producer Mel Brooks based his film on the memoirs of Frederick Treves and a much later account of Merrick's life by Ashley Montagu. The film is lensed in black and white by British master cinematographer Freddie Francis. Though nominated for eight Academy Awards, the film was ultimately shut out in every category. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide 1980, 124 minutes

The story of Joseph Merrick (erroneously called "John") in the movie and elsewhere is poignant and fascinating. One can start with Wikipedia which has a good bibliography. It may not be important whether Merrick had neurofibromatosis or Proteus syndrome (except to physicians) because the story has so many important issues about disability and deformity which supersede the diagnosis.

Availability:
Netflix
Milne Library (VHS)
Sawyer (? Format)

Mel Krant's teaching points:

Elling

Per Christian Ellefsen and Sven Nordin play the shy, retiring Elling and the imposing Kjell in this Norwegian movie about two mentally challenged friends who battle adversity and find their place in the sun. The two room together and attempt to create a life for themselves outside the confining, but protective, walls of the hospital. Directed by Petter Naess, Elling was nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Language Film category.

Netflix

King Gimp

Dan Keplinger is the main subject and writer of the 2000 Oscar winning documentary "King Gimp." It is currently distributed to schools and professional training programs as educational material. "King Gimp" is also a featured show on HBO, winner of the Peabody Award and a national Emmy nominee. In 2001 Dan was featured in a Super Bowl commercial for Cingular Wireless to promote self-expression. The commercial was ranked number one in a USA Today survey. For information on the Whiteford-Hadary Academy Award winning documentary, King Gimp, now available on video cassette, please contact: National Films for the Humanities and Sciences 800.257.5126

This is an extraordinary documentary. Well worth the effort to find it.

Blindsight

This documentary will be showing around the U.S. in June and July 2008. We will keep you posted as to its eventual release and availability.

From the Trailer
Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas, Blindsight follows the gripping adventure of six Tibetan teenagers who set out to climb the 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri on the north side of Mount Everest.
A dangerous journey soon becomes a seemingly impossible challenge made all the more remarkable by the fact that the teenagers are blind.
Believed by many Tibetans to be possessed by demons, the children are shunned by their parents, scorned by their villages and rejected by society. Rescued by Sabriye Tenberken - a blind educator and adventurer who established the first school for the blind in Lhasa, the students invite the famous blind mountain climber Erik Weihenmayer to visit their school after learning about his conquest of Everest. Erik arrives in Lhasa and inspires Sabriye and her students Kyila, Sonam Bhumtso, Tashi, Gyenshen, Dachung and Tenzin to let him lead them higher than they have ever been before.
The resulting 3-week journey is beyond anything any of them could have predicted.

June 25, 2008: Just saw Blindsight. It is really a moving documentary. A tribute to Braile without Borders founder Sabriye Tenberken, the mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer and six intrepid Tibetan kids. If you can, track it down or put it on your NetFlix wish list when it comes out in DVD.

My Architect

Documentarian Nathaniel Kahn examines the life and career of his father, Philadelphia architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974), whose work included the Salk Institute and the Parliament and Capitol Buildings in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The elder Kahn died of a heart attack in a Penn Station bathroom in 1974, unidentified and broke despite having been one of the century's most influential architects. 116 minutes

Louis Kahn was badly burned as a child and had facial scarring which may have explained his behaviors.

Murderball

Rugby-playing quadriplegics compete for the Paralympic gold medal in this documentary about an amazing sport and the strong-willed athletes who play full-contact rugby using specially designed wheelchairs. The film follows the U.S. Quad Rugby Team as they compete in the 2002 World Championships and the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. Murderball won the 2005 Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. 2005 85 Minutes

Incredibly inspirational and powerful.

My Left Foot

Fr. Netflix review: "Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for his portrayal of Irish writer Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy. Misdiagnosed as mentally disabled for the first 10 years of his life, Brown learned to write using his left foot, the only body part he could control. The story unfolds in flashbacks, with Hugh O'Conor as the young Christy equaling Day-Lewis's performance as the adult." This is an extraordinary film, s "must-see" for all health care professionals.

Availability:
Milne Library Williamstown
Netflix
Williams College Libraries

Films Dealing With Disabilities

Films Involving Disabilities

This site presents a detailed list of over 2,500 feature films which involve in one way or another various disabilities. It is directed towards teachers, students and anyone who has an interest in how disability is represented in films.

Films are listed in categories and Major and Minor films. Each film is either reviewed or includes a summary and links to further information.