Different Bodies: Essays on Disability in Film and Television

283 Pages·2013·3.12 MB·English

by  Marja Evelyn Mogk (editor)

Different Bodies
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Different Bodies
Essays on Disability
in Film and Television
Edited by MARJA EVELYN MOGK
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Different bodies : essays on disability in film
and television / edited by Marja Evelyn Mogk.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-6535-4
♾
softcover : acid free paper
1. People with disabilities in motion pictures.
2. People with disabilities on television.
I. Mogk, Marja editor of compilation.
PN1995.9.H34D54 2013 791.43'6527—dc23 2013022270
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2013 Marja Evelyn Mogk. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: Tekki Lomnicki plays herself in a romantic dream
sequence featuring Paris in Jeffrey Jon Smith's The Miracle(2007).
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
For all those who are
new to disability studies
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction: An Invitation to Disability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part I: Disability on the Screen
Deaf Sexy: Genre and Disability in Read My Lips
TIMOTHY E. WILSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Punk Will Tear Us Apart: Performance, Liminality and Filmic
Depictions of Disabled Punk Musicians
DAVID CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Acquired Community: Leigh Bowery and Hail the New Puritan’s
Mise-en-Scène of AIDS
HEATHER WARREN-CROW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Razzle-Dazzle Heartbreak: Disability Promotion and Glorious
Abjection in Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World
NICOLE MARKOTIC´ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Seeing the Apricot: A Disability Perspective on Alzheimer’s
in Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry
SALLY CHIVERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Breaking the Silence? Deafness, Education and Identity in
Two Post-Cultural Revolution Chinese Films
SARAH DAUNCEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Modernity’s Rescue Mission: Postcolonial Transactions
of Disability and Sexuality
EUNJUNG KIM and MICHELLE JARMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Chocolate’s Ass-Kicking Autistic Savant: Disability,
Globalization and the Action Cinema
RUSSELL MEEUF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Physical Disability and Indian Cinema
JOYOJEET PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
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viii Table of Contents
Extra-Textual Reveals: Disability, (Sort of) Queer Sexuality
and a Military Coup in Battlestar Galactica
ALYSON PATSAVAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Healer? Assassin? Ben Hawkins, “Cure,” “Disability” and
Missions in HBO’s Carnivàle
JOHNSON CHEU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
“Are they laughing at us or with us?” Disability in Fox’s
Animated Series Family Guy
SIMON MCKEOWN and PAUL A. DARKE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Choreographing Disability: Stigma, Handicapability and
Dancing with the Stars
HEATH A. DIEHL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Part II: Disability in Production and Reception
Don’t Film Us, We’ll Film You: Agency and Self-Representation
in the Joined for Life Television Documentaries
ELLEN SAMUELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
The Making of 18q-: Parental Advocacy, Disability and the
Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking
VERONICA WAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Overcoming the Need to “Overcome”: Challenging Disability
Narratives in The Miracle
TERRI THROWER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Born on the Fourth of July: Production and Assessment
of a Turbulent Text
MARTIN F. NORDEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Deafness as Peripeteia: “Beethoven” and Immortal Beloved
DAWNE C. MCCANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
“This isn’t something I can fake”: The Discourse of
Disability Surrounding Glee!
KATIE ELLIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Appendices
I: Filmography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
II: Selected Readings in Disability Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
About the Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Acknowledgments
Eunjung Kim and Michelle Jarman’s essay (“Modernity’s
Rescue Mission”) first appeared in the Canadian Journal of Film
Studies/Revue Canadienne d’Études Cinématographique 17.1(2008) and is
reprinted here with permission.
My special thanks to Cynthia Miller for her support of the
Different Bodies area, which I inaugurated and chaired at the Film &
History conferences of 2008 and 2010, and for encouraging me to proceed
with a new collection of essays on the topic. This project has brought
me a number of new friends and colleagues, among them Nicole
Markotic´, whose good cheer and sound, generous advice on the process
of editing a book made a difference. I am also grateful for my sabbatical
leave in 2010–11 from California Lutheran University, which allowed
me to conceive of this project and work through its initial stages, and
for the support of the wonderful members of my department and
colleagues at the university. Last but not least, all my love and gratitude
to my family.
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