Andrew Morrison-Gurza talks about what it means for people with disabilities to see/hear their stories on the big screen.
Every single time I watched a movie when I was young, I watched each leading man, action star, sex symbol and rom-com queen and I envisioned what the story would be like if this character lived like me, in a chair. I may have watched Meg Ryan’s films to be able to quote them verbatim to this day – what young gay kid didn’t? I always hoped that one day I would see myself represented.
Cripples in the media fall into one of two categories: the sad, sick pitiable cripple – destined to bear this burden their whole life; or, the super cripple – the one who overcomes their hardships and does amazing things in spite of their ‘condition’. Lame sauce.
The more I started doing this work as a Disability Awareness Consultant, I realized that even today in 2014, we still frame disability through these two rather myopic lenses in the media. Many of us are never seen, simply for being ourselves – telling the reality of disability to the camera. I embarked to change that.
Recently, I have worked with a dear friend of mine on a new project borne out of conversations that we had around the intersections between my disability, sex and my queerness. In truth, we were simply messing around on my I-Pad. What came out of that 40 minutes of talking (I am a fast talker who loves to chat), was Bedding Andrew. In the film, I talk about the impact my first time had on my disability and vice versa.
Now, I love me some attention (I am so modest, I know), and I am used to people paying attention to me (by ‘paying attention’, I mean both taking care of me and/or looking at me on the bus unsure of whether to say hello or not), but this was a different experience altogether. To have a camera there filming my life and my reality was cool because a) I understand now how hard the Kardashians have it… Kim’s got it rough… and b) I was no longer invisible. My story and my voice as a Queer Crip was valid and important. That’s pretty amaze balls. Anyone wanna hire me for a reality show?
I am very proud of the media work that I have done, not because I wanted to be in the spotlight (okay, maybe I did…wanna fight about it? LOL), but because it meant that audiences get to see disability for what it really is… not a caricature designed to evoke trumped emotional responses, but funny, sexy, honest accounts of real crips doing real things.
I know that if I were a young kid in (insert small town you come from here) I would have been happy to see my lived experience shown back to me. I would know in some small way, that I belong and that my lived experience has value, no matter what my ability is or isn’t.
Next time you’re in that big budget blockbuster sitting next to that guy in the wheelchair, consider that he might just be imagining himself in that role, and what it would mean to him if he saw himself.
Please spread the word about our Bedding Andrew Indiegogo Campaign in an effort to get more stories about Persons with Disabilities on-screen: Bedding Andrew Film Festival Fund.
Bedding Andrew – Extra Bits from Blair Fukumura on Vimeo.
Editor’s Note: All language as originally used by the author.
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