Three U.S. Videos Explore the World of Work from Perspectives of Disabled Individuals
Film reviews of "Teach Me To...," "Working Now," and "Look Who's Laughing"
Three recent videos present a variety of viewpoints of individuals with disabilities about the challenges and rewards of finding employment in the contemporary U.S. job market. All three videos are imbued with the required, up-beat, "I'll find a way" approach that some Europeans find predictably amusing about Americans. Technically though, the optimistic glow is justified since everyone presented here seems more or less content with their jobs and convinced of the central role of employment in their lives.
"Teach Me To..." is an 11 minute presentation of life in the classroom for a dedicated and dynamic third grade teacher who uses a wheelchair. This is a case of the right subject matter finding the right person to carry the message: we are completely captivated by this engaging, open woman who says she was "born to teach." The production values are innovative: the entire video is shot from her level, which happens to coincide with the height of her students. The content is also a seamlessly blended mix of the teacher's perceptions of her role, the impact of her disability on the students and their reactions to her.
The only somewhat unreal aspect is that this North Carolina teacher seems not to have encountered any disbelief on the part of her employers that she could handle 26 energetic children on her own. How she got the job is not part of the story, so we don't know if like most of her disabled peers, she was first subjected to numerous rejections and extended periods of unemployment. One also wonders if, in this new world of mainstreamed education, this teacher has encountered any students with disabilities. At one point, she alludes to using her own challenges as an example to students who are finding the curriculum difficult but this is as close as the film comes to touching on the topic. But, an 11 minute video can't cover all ground and it's quite an impressive portrait as it is.
"Working Now," a 26 minute video, produced by Charlotte K. Beyers, is presented in the more classic style of short vignettes illustrating the working lives of six people with various disabilities. Each vignette is in two parts, first a commentary on the job by the employee, followed by a short assessment by the person's supervisor.
This production was completed in 1992 in the wake of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and in a halcyon period of nearly full employment. We are introduced in true California diversity style, first to Donna Yeager in her motorized wheelchair, a high-tech troubleshooter employed by Hewlett-Packard; next to Oscar Valdez, another wheelchair user who speeds around town writing up traffic violations; then to Peter de Meo, a Latino with cerebral palsy who is an internal transport clerk in a busy hospital; next to Delores C. Beggs, a successful children's book writer who is deaf; then to Heather Clowser, whose brain injury led her to a new career as an empathetic physical therapist with the elderly; then we see Gina Harper in action, a super-successful blind stockbroker; and, finally, we hear from Kellie Dixon, a physically disabled, African American office worker who is impressively direct about the prejudice she encountered on the road to employment. At the beginning and end of the film, another wheelchair-using "California girl" who lifts weights and is employed to do so, appears as a sort of cross between a cheerleader and narrator.
For the most part, the interviews with the disabled employees are interesting glimpses into their working lives and, for the most part, the commentaries by the supervisors, possibly intended to be reassuring to other prospective employers, are just empty platitudes about how we all have to open our minds and learn to accept difference.
The producer, Charlotte Beyers, has won many awards for her hard-hitting documentaries and this one too is well assembled and professionally paced. Only occasionally was it evident that this was her first foray into the disability arena, with some passe phrases like "special needs" and "normal." Small criticisms, good film. In this new economy though, I wish Beyers would go do a follow-up film, interviewing Gina Harper about what we all should do next!
The film is available form Peregrine Productions in Palo Alto, California, phone 650 328 4843.
Look Who's Laughing: Comedians Speak Out about Disabilities and Comedy
This is a marvelously entertaining 56 minutes of six working comedians with disabilities, strutting their stuff at comedy clubs across the U.S. The six are: the groundbreaking Jeri Jewell, who had a career as a television sitcom star before becoming a comic; Alex Valdez, blind, and Chris Fonseca, who has cerebral palsy, both of whom poke fun at their disabilities and stereotypes about the Macho Latino; Kathy Buckley, a deaf woman who skewers the special education system she was subjected to; and J.D. England and Brett Leake, two physically disabled men with "attitude."
They are all quite personable and have a lot of well-honed insights about taking on this type of work, which is not only physically exhausting but requires them to undergo relentless public scrutiny of their disabilities. The payoffs, besides the electrical charge they get from audience reactions, are they are their own bosses and in full charge of the material. The well-conceived format, alternating clips from club routines with more relaxed interviews, results in an upclose view into the lives of professional comics.
My favorite, Chris Fonseca, has a slow grin, a leather jacket and perfectly calibrated timing. He says, " Hi...I'm Chris...I have cerebral palsy and I'm Mexican...You know what that means...If you make me angry, I'll pull out a knife...and we'll both get hurt." Alex Valdez is also adept at playing with assumptions and rapidly reversing imagery. For example, he describes his education: "I went to a special school called Handicapped High. It had two normal parking spots out front." Valdez also provokes a lot of nervous laughter when he brings up his former career as an air traffic controller.
This is an exceptionally provocative piece, full of philosophical insights about attitudes, stereotypes, myths and how to challenge or change them. While earning a living! My sole critique of this entertaining and educational video is that the six are perhaps in too much agreement of how to project their comic views -making me suspect there are probably some younger, angrier, in-your-face types out there that we haven't heard about yet. The video is available for $69 from Program Development Associates, on the web at www.disabilitytraining.com
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