Beyond Borders:
The Illusion of Normalcy in Film

Monday nights, 7pm @ Watson Theater
September 12 – November 28

Beyond Borders: The Illusion of Normalcy in Film is a semester long film series this fall that takes place on Monday nights from September 12 through November 28, 2005.

Following the successes of previous film events related to disability and diversity, the goal of this year’s film series is to challenge the idea of ‘normal.’ Narrow conceptualizations of ‘normal’ that identify, exclude, and punish deviations leave only an illusional space where none feels accepted and safe. This greatly hinders the emergence of community, appreciation of diversity, and respectful, inclusive spaces. To challenge such an ‘illusion of normalcy’ and to encourage people to re-examine the perceived borders that work to set us apart, we will screen films and create a space for discussion regarding the historical/societal/cultural/media strategies that protect and privilege the idea of ‘normalcy.’

September 12: Million Dollar Baby
The winner of 4 Academy-Awards in 2004, this film by director Clint Eastwood takes place in a boxing gym in Los Angeles. The film depicts the developing relationships between "white-trash" Missouri waitress and aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), her grizzled, reluctant trainer Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), and Frankie's best friend and training-gym partner Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris (Morgan Freeman) (Rated PG-13; 137 minutes; 2004)

September 26: The Hours
The lives of two different women are affected across the time continuum via a Virginia Woolf novel. Clarissa Vaughn is a book editor in modern day New York who is throwing a party for a friend of hers who is dying of AIDS. Laura Brown is a housewife in 1949 who is planning a party for her husband but cannot put down Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Both women are connected to the brilliant but depressed author who is shown during the writing of her famous novel. (Rated PG-13; 120 minutes; 2002)

October 10: The Station Agent
Finbar McBride is a young man of short stature who has just lost his best friend and seeks a life of solitude in an abandoned train station. That plan is blighted by the daily appearance of a cast of characters including a friendly and talkative hot dog vendor and an artist coping with the death of her son whose interactions with Finbar show him that none of us ever truly want to be alone. (Rated R; 88 minutes; 2003)

October 24: The Elephant Man
Director David Lynch’s portrayal of John Merrick, an individual with physical differences dubbed “The Elephant Man”. The movie depicts his years in a circus freak show, and his ultimate acceptance by a compassionate surgeon and London high society. (Rated PG; 124 minutes; 1980)

October 31: Mozart and the Whale
A romantic comedy in which Donald (Josh Hartnett) meets a beautiful girl, Isabelle (Radha Mitchell) at the peer support group for individuals who experience conditions called Asperger’s syndrome or autism. (Rated PG-13; 2005)

November 14: N.E.P.A.L. Never Ending Peace And Love
An episode from an award-winning Korean film If You Were Me, which is a collection of six shorts on the theme of identity and discrimination. This episode is about the true story of a Nepali woman who came to Korea to work and was mistaken as a Korean who could not speak. After being taken by the police, she was given various disability labels such as ‘depression’ and ‘mental retardation’ and institutionalized in a mental hospital for more than 6 years. (28 minutes, 2003)

November 14: Featured Speaker - Norman Kunc
Mr. Norman Kunc is an internationally well-known Canadian disability rights activist who has cerebral palsy. He and his wife, Emma Van der Klift, have spent the last 20 years working to ensure that people with disabilities are able to take their rightful place in schools, workplaces, and communities. They are keenly interested in how story, art, and literature can be used to evoke social change. They are the authors of an award-winning message video Credo for Support. At our Film Series, Mr. Kunc will discuss the issues around institutionalization, practice of labeling, an illusional concept of "normal," and inclusion and belonging.

November 28: My Classic Life as an Artist: A Portrait of Larry Bissonnette
A Documentary Film produced by Douglas Biklen and Zach Rossetti and written by Larry Bissonnette. This documentary shows a day in the life of a Vermont artist Larry Bissonnette. Looking back on his years of living in a closed institution for people labeled mentally retarded, he assesses this form of “apartheid” as “better for growing vegetables rather than people.” This is a documentary filled with Bissonnette’s humorous but also poignant assessments of his life, including this one about labeling: “Fastening labels on people is like leasing cars with destinations determined beforehand.” (20 minutes, 2005)

Co-sponsors
Beyond Compliance Coordinating Committee (BCCC); the Center on Disability Studies, Law, and Human Policy; Facilitated Communication Institute; School of Education; the U.Encounter Grant; the Kaleidoscope Project (A diversity initiative between the Divisions of Undergraduate studies and Student Affairs); the LGBT resource center; the Writing Program; the dis/Ability Law Society; the Office of Disability Services; the Sociology Department; the Slutzker Center for International Services; College of Human Services & Health Professions; and Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning (OGLEL)