The shooting of these films played a role in shaping the general views of this segment. Throughout history, cinema has reflected many forms of disability, and this has always been the point of view of a person outside this segment. Although cinema created a kind of awareness, relationship and important concepts between viewers and the type of disability that a film revolves around, but at the same time it created misconceptions for a group of disabilities and people with special needs. In many films, in fact, attention is focused on social stereotypes that have nothing to do with the daily lives of these people or their various possibilities. After the anti-discrimination law against people with additional needs in the world, how the cinema deals with them has improved but there is still a lot of room for more awareness and more films that depict them and depict their lives in a non-stereotypical way and of course giving people with additional needs main roles.
The #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements have forced Hollywood and other filmmakers to rethink their themes and choices. However, despite the increasing sensitivity to the representation of gender and race in popular culture, those with additional needs are still waiting for their movement.
Attention is sometimes focused on social stereotypes that have nothing to do with the daily lives of these people or their various possibilities
It’s hard to dismiss actors from characters with disabilities. These roles are an Oscar magnet: since 1947, of 59 nominations for actors playing characters with disabilities, 27 have won a Best Actor or Best Actor Oscar, with a win rate of nearly 50%. This is a problem that people with disabilities have, and it feels like a confrontation. So instead of there being a huge gap between cinema, filmmakers and people with special needs there should be an open discussion. This is a topic for discussion away from the natural rights that should be granted to them in the beginning. In recent years, the film industry has made a concerted effort to make all sorts of disabilities on screen and disabilities dealt with by actors a more realistic experience. It’s not about “normalizing” disabilities, but about creating empathy and innate communication between actors and audiences regardless of disability. But to this day it is still not enough.
Stereotypes
We find in the cinema what appears to be a deep sympathy and realistic portrayal of disability, although it appears to others, especially those with additional needs, that it is nothing more than stereotypes, show and irony. Although most of the films certainly provided many non-disabled viewers with new ideas about disability, they also perpetuated stereotypes and cliched words about disability.
Movie Forrest Gump (1994)
Most of the topics that are repeated in the cinema and have a negative impact on people with additional needs lies in the way they are presented, for example:
The disabled person is always angry and bitter and cannot overcome his lost abilities and attacks only non-disabled people who are trying to help (The Intouchables).
There are films that depict the blind as a mystic who “sees” more than the sighted (Scent of a woman).
People with Down syndrome are always virtuous, like children, and their innocence and simplicity bestow goodness and love to others around them (The Eighth Day).
One of the most recurring themes is the idea of a person with additional needs fighting for their right to kill themselves (Me Before You).
It is not uncommon for a villain to suffer from mental illness, with a particular tendency toward violent crimes.
An inspiring superhero character who is seen as unusual or heroic just because she suffers from an extra need (Daredevil)
Another common scenario is for a person to be seen as deplorable or helpless, simply because they have a disability.
In many films, people with extra needs are portrayed as angelic (Forrest Gump, I am Sam, Rain Man).
An additional need should not be a uniform that a able-bodied person puts on and then takes off
The best way to get rid of stereotypes is to choose actors with additional needs to play characters from their actual lives. We are not saying here that the actor who does not belong to this category should not act. They are represented in the end, but people with additional needs should be given an opportunity, so that awareness of individual capacities and social barriers increases, generates discussion, makes disability visible, increases acceptance and promotes integration into society. An additional need should not be a uniform that a physically able person puts on and then takes off.
without words
When Marlee Matlin won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Children of a Lesser God, she was the youngest ever winner of the award, and only one of four actresses to receive it in their first film. These are impressive facts. Matlin is the only deaf actress to have received an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
فيلم Children of a Lesser God (1986)
– In “Sons of Silence” (1986), Marley appeared with extraordinary talent. The biggest challenge was communicating without words, but Matlin rose in the same way as the silent movie stars, speaking with her eyes, her gestures, and her body. The characters in the movie are shrouded in a mystery that transcends sign language. Matlin manages to give a visual tenderness to every movement, and because the sign language in the film is not only acting but an original way of communication, every move is honest and makes the characters more believable. Through the film we can see that it is impossible to forbid a love encounter between a deaf person and another who speaks, and the impossibility of not believing everything that comes out of the screen because the actors are honest even in the movements of their hands.
There are films whose main attraction lies in their simplicity, and enjoy until the end even if their story is predictable. This is the case in the movie CODA (2021) whose secret lies in its authenticity and overcoming of physical and physical barriers especially in terms of representing the deaf community. In Coda, there is a voice for silence, and again Marley Matlin is the voice of that silence. Everything in the film exudes authenticity and realism, the dialogues are accurate, some of which we hear and some of them in sign language. A movie in two different languages and two ways of facing life. The film is nominated for three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
“The Voice”, Netflix
April 17, 2015 was a big day for audio description technology, when Daredevil became the first Netflix show to include audio descriptions. Audio or video description technology, or more precisely, visual description, a form of narration used to provide information surrounding key visual elements for the benefit of blind and visually impaired persons.
20%
Of the population in the United States has a disability, and only 2% of roles in Hollywood are for them. Of these 2%, only 5% are played by those with additional needs, while the rest are represented without additional needs.
Oscar 1947
Harold Russell is the only disabled actor to win an Academy Award, a veteran who lost his hands during World War II. He won an Academy Award in 1947 for his role in The Best Years of Our Lives.
59
Actors who received Oscar nominations for playing special needs roles, 27 of them won Best or Actor.