Hollywood Images of Disability

By Soliloquy Feb 6, 2011 / 4 Comments

Salome Chasnoff’s extensive compilation of video clips demonstrating the bizarre–and sometimes biased–treatment of disability by Hollywood.

Warning: Includes nudity and violence (both by and against people with disabilities).

Update: Alas, the video has been removed from Vimeo. We’ll let you know if we get any more information on it.

Update the second: It’s being reworked into a proper documentary, titled Code of the Freaks.

4 Comments

  1. Interesting that no mention is made of deafness and images of deaf people in film (Johnny Belinda, Heart is A Lonely Hunter, Miracle Worker, Children of A Lessser God). Also, the image of Marlee Matlin winning the Oscar should be noted as she is the only performer WITH a disability who was playing a person with a disability and who won an Oscar.

  3. Responding to Jack, it’s not true that Marlee Matlin was the only performer with a disability who was playing a person with a disability and who won an Oscar. In 1946, actor Harold Russell won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for portraying Homer Parrish in “The Best Years of Our Lives.” Like his character, Homer, Harold Russell lost both hands while serving in the military. He ALSO won a second Honorary Oscar for that same role for “being an inspiration for disabled war veterans”.

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