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Barriers to Diversity in Film – A Research Review – Aug 07

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e<strong>in</strong>g ill and dependent. <strong>Film</strong>s are also often sentimentalised. Disabled<br />

people are often seen as asexual or excessively sexual and impairment<br />

is often portrayed as a result of previous moral deviance. Disabled<br />

people, it is argued, suffer pr<strong>in</strong>cipally from their objectification, not<br />

their impairment (BFI 2003).<br />

Another author argues that disabled people are portrayed as asexual,<br />

due <strong>to</strong> weakness, and are often seen as children. He cites several films<br />

such as Duet for One (1987), The Elephant Man (1980) and Com<strong>in</strong>g<br />

Home (1978) which portray disabled people’s sexuality as non-<br />

existent, pre-sexual or deviant. Disabled people are never portrayed<br />

as parents (Darke 1994b).<br />

In 1994, the Arts Council for England set up a national film and video<br />

project, with an annual budget of £60,000, <strong>to</strong> fund <strong>in</strong>novative shorts<br />

by disabled people. The BFI argue that if disabled people were <strong>to</strong><br />

receive their share of lottery film fund<strong>in</strong>g, from the UK <strong>Film</strong> Council<br />

alone, based on the fact that 10% of the population is disabled, then<br />

there would be over £10 million (sic) available every year for disabled<br />

people’s <strong>in</strong>volvement not just <strong>in</strong> film but <strong>in</strong> wider British film culture,<br />

for production, distribution, exhibition, education, research and<br />

preservation. As they rightly po<strong>in</strong>t out, there are no national disability-<br />

specific <strong>in</strong>itiatives (BFI 2003).<br />

5.5 4 M<strong>in</strong>ority ethnic groups<br />

C:\Documents and Sett<strong>in</strong>gs\mcorless\Desk<strong>to</strong>p\Intranet\<strong>Barriers</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Diversity</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Film</strong>_DS_RB 20 <strong>Aug</strong><br />

<strong>07</strong>.doc<br />

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