Staff Picks

Title: Nothing But Bones in the Way

Director: Dianne Reid with Melinda Smith

Length: 37 mins

Database: ArtFilms

Summary: Nothing But Bones in the Way is a documentary chronicling the shared dance practice between dance and video artist Dianne Reid with Melinda Smith, a dancer living with cerebral palsy. The documentary celebrates Melinda and Dianne’s unique artistic relationship and friendship through their mutual love of dance. Dancing together for several years, their collaboration has transformed their way of being, living and communicating. Nothing But Bones in the Way was originally a title for an improvised performance. Footage of that performance has been included as well as archival video of the dancers’ studio practice. -Art Films website.

 

Title: The Kitchen

Director: Alile Sharon Larkin

Length: 6:38

Database: L. A. Rebellion

Summary: Filmmaker Alile Sharon Larkin visualizes a mental ward as a possible equivalent to prison incarceration for women of color.  The cause of a woman’s nervous breakdown here is personal and political, namely hair, a trauma for many Black women that has engaged the attention of African American filmmakers on both coasts. The Kitchen also bears another message, one of compassion for children who are physically abused by their parents. Alile Sharon Larkin would brilliantly capture a child’s perspective in her next film, Your Children Come Back to You (1979).  —Jan-Christopher Horak

Title: Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger

Director: Alanis Obomsawin

Length: 1hr 5 min

Database: National Film Board CAMPUS (NFB CAMPUS)

Summary: Alanis Obomsawin's 52^nd film tells the story of how the life of Jordan River Anderson initiated a battle for the right of First Nations and Inuit children to receive the same standard of social, health and educational services as the rest of the Canadian population. -NFB website

When Jordan River Anderson, suffering from a rare muscle disorder known as Carey-Fineman-Ziter syndrome, died in 2005, he had spent all five years of his young life in hospital. Although doctors had permitted Jordan to move into special housing when he was two years old, the Canadian federal and Manitoban provincial governments disputed which one was responsible for his home-care costs. In 2007, facing criticism and in response to recommendations from Indigenous groups, Canada's Parliament passed a motion in support of "Jordan's Principle," a policy meant to ensure that First Nations children have equitable access to government-funded health, social, and educational services. Although practice took an exhausting 10 years to live up to the aspirations of the principle, we've finally reached a time when justice is possible. -TIFF website

Title: Sea of Butterfly

Director: Bae-il Park

Length: 52 min

Database: Alexander Street

Summary: After an 8 - year relationship, Jae-nyeon and Woo-young decide to get married. Though similar brain lesions define them, the pair must confront and resolve marital issues identical to any other couple. Sea of Butterfly shows that even the disabled are not exempted from patriarchal marriage customs. The first half of the film depicts the fear and loneliness that results from Wooyoung's hasty decisions. Later, his mother's perspectives are explicitly visualized and contrasted with Jae-nyeon's, implicitly revealed only by her acquaintances' assumptions. – Alexander Street website

Title: Adapt – Empowerment : Women in the Disability Community

Producer: Adapt of Chicago Productions

Length: 27:09

Database: Moving Image Archive

Summary: Adapt of Chicago's Barb Wesolek interviews various women occupying strong roles within the disability community. -Moving Image Archive website