Table Of ContentDocumentary and Disability
CatalinBrylla(cid:129)HelenHughes
Editors
Documentary
and Disability
Editors
CatalinBrylla HelenHughes
SchoolofFilm,MediaandDesign SchoolofLiteratureandLanguages
UniversityofWestLondon UniversityofSurrey
London,UK Guildford,UK
ISBN978-1-137-59893-6 ISBN978-1-137-59894-3(eBook)
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F
OREWORD
Documentary and Disability unfolds a truly powerful relation. As a
technique of affect/ion it unleashes the felt ‘density of the concrete’
(Wahl 2017), that is, the attachments and detachments of bodies,
minds and things that make up the experiences of dis- as well as
enabling realities. The density of the concrete, and this is Wahl’s
point, is not given, but is what is being ‘pursued’ (ibid.) by those
who engage with it, by those who are affected by it. Whereas a
philosophy of dis/ability would concentrate on the creation of concepts,
documentary film – as a practice and work of art – pursues the creation
of percepts of dis/ability (Deleuze & Guattari 1994). Documentary
percepts of dis/ability come into being and dwell upon the ‘ordinary’
complexity, struggles, sufferings and joys of everyday life experiences.
With the documentary film we are in the midst of the thickness of
humans, non-humans and things; we are in the midst of affective
relations. Documentary percepts unfold social worlds of dis/abling
experiences that mediate the personal and the public, different bodies
and minds, socio-cultural differences, the past, present and future of
dis/abling realities. Undoubtedly, as an ‘object’ of art, documentary is
a highly ‘subjective’ endeavour of techniques of perception that situ-
ates the realities and differences of dis/abling experiences. Clearly,
documentary percepts make specific issues and practices of dis/ability
present and centre stage and make others absent and backstage. It
experiments with and narrates matters of dis/abling concerns to gain
v
vi FOREWORD
awareness for the issues presented. In that sense, documentary film is
moved by and moves the existence of dis/ability insofar as it creates
and thus multiplies percepts of dis/abling realities.
Documentaryperceptsofdis/abilityarepoliticalaswell.Unmistakably,
though,itisnotatechnologyofaconsensus-drivenpoliticalagenda.Rather,
asatechniqueandobjectofart,documentaryfilmanditsperceptsenablethe
possibilityofemergingpublicsofdis/ability.Likethedensityoftheconcrete,
publicsofdis/abilitydonotrefertoagivenpoliticalagencythatmakeupthe
spaceofthe‘goodcitizen’whoisenactedbyhis/her‘democraticgenes’that
perform his/her good political will to participate in all societal matters.
Rather, thinking with Isabelle Stengers and John Dewey, publics of dis/
ability come into being by people who are affected by a shared (andoften
highly specific) concern with and for issues of ‘appealing minorities’
(Einspruchsminderheiten) (cf. Stengers 2008). Documentary percepts of
dis/ability care about the differences of dis/abling experiences as they
becomevisibleand/orarerenderedinvisibleintheeverydaylifeofdis/abling
practicesbymakingthempublic.Therelationbetweendocumentaryanddis/
ability celebrates differences – as un/problematic as they may appear – by
exposingthemtoanaudiencethatsharesaconcernforthesedifferencesand
itseffectswhichenactthewayswelivebyandthroughthem.Aspublicsof
appealing minorities, documentary percepts mediate the highly specific
worldsofdis/ablingexperiencesandtherebyunfoldthepossibilitytofeel,
perceive,thinkandengagedifferentlywithdis/abilitiesandrelatedemerging
issues. The relation between documentary and dis/ability is so powerful,
since it celebrates the affirmation of differences made and in the making
(Joshua&Schillmeier2010).
These publics around the concerns and issues of appealing mino-
rities draw attention not only to the vulnerabilities and sufferings from
marginalization, oppression, stigmatization, inequality, precarity and
exclusion. Moreover, and most importantly, publics of appealing mino-
rities are what I like to call cosmopolitical techniques of dis/abling
percepts. Through documentary percepts of dis/ability we become
aware, remember, set forth, envision, mobilize, dispute, problematise
and alter the very experiences of dis/abling relations. In that sense, the
‘time-images’ (Deleuze 2013) of documentary art complicate and
complexify, undermine and unsettle the understandings and realities
of dis/abilities. Documentary percepts are techniques of social transfor-
mation even though they may present the most ‘ordinary’ or suppo-
sedly ‘normal’ and/or stereotypical everyday life situations. Unfolding
FOREWORD vii
the concrete and situated experiences of dis/abling realities, documen-
tary film questions, disrupts, and alters the taken-for-grantedness of
understanding and normalizing dis/ability by multiplying our percep-
tions and attitudes, our engagement, concerns and re-presentations of
dis/ability (Schillmeier 2012, 2014, 2016).
Most importantly, then, it is the specific way of how the relation
between documentary and dis/ability engages (with) differences. It is
precisely the artful engagement with differences which is what we need
tocelebrateandwhatisindeedcelebratedinthisbeautifullycraftedbook.
Clearly, the relation between documentary and dis/ability differs signifi-
cantlyfromthedominatingscientificand/ormedicalframingsandunder-
standings of dis/ability. It is the specificity of the artful relation that
pragmaticallyengageswiththedifferencesoffeltrealitiesandexperiences
by multiplying them rather than destroying or curing them. The relation
of documentary and dis/ability offers an artful contrast to the dangers of
waging waragainst and withdifferences. It unfolds anartful resistance to
thetechnologiesandpragmaticsthatkeepabstractthedifferencesbetween
the ‘abled’ and ‘disabled’, between the differences as they emerge in
contexts and situations of dis/abling experiences. As an artful relation, it
resists homogenizing differences and their affordances. It protects differ-
ences so that they do not become victims of the oppositional strife of
differences and offers a productive contrast to the pragmatics of insipid
agreementsofconsensus-drivenpolitics,whichoftenmissoutthespecific
requirementsandunderstandings of embodiedandlived differences.
This book shows that documentary percepts can be understood as a
cosmopolitical technique against visual technologies of media sensational-
ismandneo-liberaleconomyofsellingissuesofdifferencesanddisability.
Witnessing how many parts of our world become under siege of destruc-
tive forces of Othering differences this book unfolds a most important
counter-political tool against any socio-politically enacted forms of
neglecting or disfiguring issues and concerns of disability. Brylla and
Hughes’ edited book brings to the fore the powerful relation between
documentary and dis/ability. The contributions draw attention to the
workofartasamodeofpoliticizingthecosmosofthetaken-for-granted,
the normal and normalised, the common and unquestioned worlds of
living, sharing, protecting and destroying differences – made and in the
making.It resists thepresent asagiven.
MichaelSchillmeier
viii FOREWORD
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Deleuze, G. (2013)CinemaII: TheTime-Image.London:Bloomsbury.
Deleuze,G.&F.Guattari(1994)WhatisPhilosophy?London/NewYork:
Verso.
Joshua, E. & M. Schillmeier (Eds) (2010) Disability in German
Literature, Film, and Theater. Edinburgh German Yearbook Vol. 4.
Rochester, New York: Camden House.
Schillmeier, M. (2012) Rethinking Disability. Bodies, Senses, and Things.
London/NewYork: Routledge.
Schillmeier, M. (2014) Eventful Bodies. The Cosmopolitics of Illness.
London/NewYork: Routledge.
Schillmeier, M. (2016) Design and the Art of Care: Engaging the More
Than Human and Less Than Inhuman. In: Bates, Ch., R. Imrie & K.
Kullman (Eds.) Care and Design: Bodies, Buildings, Cities. Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Schillmeier,M.(2027)2Seet2Kill.SpeculativeResearchandContributory
Action. In: Wilkie, A, M. Savransky & M. Rosengarten (Eds.)
Speculative Research: The Lure of Possible Futures.London/New York:
Routledge.
Stengers,I. (2008)SpekulativerKonstruktivismus.Berlin: Merve.
Wahl, J. (2017) Transcendence and the Concrete. Selected Writings. New
York:Fordham University Press.
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction:TheBricolageofDocumentaryandDisability 1
CatalinBryllaandHelenHughes
Bibliography 9
PartI FilmPractice
2 Not Without Us: Collaboratingacross Difference
in Documentary Filmmaking 13
SamuelAvery
CreatingMeaningful Spaces forCollaboration: Squeaky
Wheel and theChannels Grant 13
Pre-production: Embracing My‘Outsiderness’
and BuildingTrust 15
ProductionI: Working onSite 18
ProductionII: National Experts, Community Voices
and FindingBalance 21
Post-productionand Exhibition 22
Notes 24
Bibliography 24
3 Visual Psychological Anthropology andthe Lived
Experience ofDisability 27
AnnieTuckerandRobert Lemelson
ix
x CONTENTS
TheIntegration ofEthnographicFilmwith the Psychological
Anthropology ofDisability 28
Gusti Ayuand TheBirdDancer 30
Gusti’sStory as Representedin theFilm 31
Filming andEditing theDynamicsof Disablement 33
Complementary Practices inTranscultural
DisabilityStudies 34
Productas Method: MakingResearch Accessible to Subjects
ThroughFilm 36
Conclusion 38
Notes 39
Bibliography 39
4 Valorising DisabilityonScreen: When Did ‘Inspirational’
Become a DirtyWord? 43
VeronicaWain
Introduction 43
Backgroundand Context 45
ProvidingaPersonal andEmotional Portrayal 47
Inspiringthrough PortrayingOrdinariness 51
ProvidingaRepository ofInformation 53
Conclusion 56
Note 57
Bibliography 57
5 Spectatorship and AlternativePortrayals of Blindness 61
CatalinBrylla
Representationsof Blindness 62
TheHome 64
Objectification 67
Still Life 71
Conclusion: Ambiguity 73
Note 74
Bibliography 74
6 Aberrancy and AutobiographicalDocumentary 79
PhoebeHart
Introduction 79
