UI "Screening Disability" conference to examine film portrayal of disabilities

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- A group of national and international experts in disability studies and in film studies will gather at The University of Iowa March 26-28 for the first-ever conference examining the representation of disabilities in movies. "Screening Disability: A Conference on Cinema and Disability," will include screenings of two films depicting the lives of disabled people as well as a discussion with the director of one of the films, Billy Golfus.

The conference is free and open to the public and no registration is required. Anyone who lives with a disability, has a disabled friend or family member, or has an interest in film will find the conference enlightening, said Christopher Smit, a UI graduate student and conference organizer.

"I hope people will come who love film, care about what film means to culture, and are concerned about disability issues," Smit said. He said that he hopes the non-academics who come to the conference will be able to add an element of real life experience to the academic discussions.

The professors and graduate students who will attend the conference and present papers are coming from 17 universities all over the world. Several participants are coming from Canadian universities, one is from South Africa, and another is from Morocco.

Smit said the primary goal of the conference is to attempt to understand these films in a new way, giving attention to how they present the phenomenon of disability, what they contribute to our society's perception of disability, and how people can use such films to understand the nature of being human.

Smit and two fellow graduate students, Prakash Younger and Anthony Enns, have been planning this conference for a year and a half with the support of the Cinema and Disability Group, an ad-hoc student group associated with the UI Institute for Cinema and Culture.

Too often, Smit said, films that portray disabled characters are classified as "political statements" and are analyzed only for their commentary on the status of the disabled in society.

"When this happens, we lose the medium," Smit said. "We need to look at these films as art and appreciate their cultural significance not only in the representations of disabled people but in the power of the film itself."

"Screening Disability" is sponsored by: The University of Iowa Foundation, Humanities Iowa, National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute for Cinema and Culture, University of Iowa Student Government, UI Office of Affirmative Action, Assistant Provost for Health Sciences, Wild Bill's Cafe, Graphic Printing, INC, and Two Fish Design.

For more information or to arrange interviews with any of the conference participants contact Christopher Smit at (319) 351-6134 or [email protected] A schedule of conference events and programs is on the Web at http://www.uiowa.edu/~ournews/current/News/1999/Mar99/Gen/0317film.html

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