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