Chapter 12 Shooting Actors who Have Intellectual Disabilities: A Reflexive Analysis on the Making of the Feature Film Sanctuary
In: Disability and Dissensus: Strategies of Disability Representation and Inclusion in Contemporary CultureSearch for other papers by Len Collin in
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Abstract
In this chapter, film director and academic Len Collin studies representations of disability through the medium of fiction film. He examines Colin Barnes’s 1992 paper “Disabling Imagery and the Media” as a manifesto and guide to best practice, which he used during the production of the feature film Sanctuary. In this way, Collin challenges the film and TV industry to improve its record on disability representation. He also provides insight into methods of working with actors who have intellectual disabilities. Collin’s work is contextualized by exploring the theme of disability representation in other relevant films that had appeared on Western screens before Sanctuary’s success. The chapter also underscores the dissensual power of the film which contributed to the abolishment of the infamous Section 5 of the Irish Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act of 1993.