CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion (2018)

TCM showed this documentary last Monday and will show it again this Monday.

If you don't get TCM, you can find out where to buy or rent it here.

It was co-hosted by the director, Jenni Gold, who has Muscular Dystrophy like me.

Afterwards she co-hosted three of my favorite movies featuring people with disabilities.

Freaks (1932), Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939).

I must share the beginning of her press statement cause I totally relate:

"CinemAbility is in part a love letter to Hollywood, an industry that has consumed my life, and partly a wake-up call. Growing up as a wheelchair user I found many of the representations of people with disabilities on screen to be confusing. I remember every year my family would watch Affair to Remember when it aired on TV and I always found it odd that after Deborah Kerr became a wheelchair user she could no longer pursue the man she loved. I remember hating the sappy Movie of the Week style representations in the 70’s and 80’s. The person in the wheelchair was always syrupy sweet or angry and bitter. It wasn’t until Friday the 13th part 2 came out that I saw a wheelchair user the way I wanted to be seen. He was a cool teenager hanging out in the cabin in the woods just like everyone else, he had a girlfriend just like everyone else, and right before he was about to have the night of his life, he got killed by Jason, just like everyone else. His disability was not the topic and was not a factor in his story line."

I want to see more cool women wheelchair users in all media, especially horror movies.

I want them to be heroes and villains, not just victims. That reminds me of my poem here.

I'm going to post about the few cool women on wheels in horror movies I've seen soon.

While on the subject, I must share this What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) spoof: