Irish Film Company says "Lights! Disability! Action!"

By Jane Vincent (jane@wid.org)

Quick: name a product of Ireland's burgeoning film industry that uses disabled actors to portray characters with disabilities. Remember, "My Left Foot" doesn't count. Give up?

If the innovative Dublin-based filmmaking group Lights! Disability! Action! (LDA!) has anything to say about it, you'll soon be able to cite multiple memorable examples of works where not only the actors but everyone involved from the first script to the last edit has a disability. More importantly, LDA! films and filmmakers all have a strong commitment to breaking down stereotypical disability images, using among their tools an irreverent attitude which LDA! graduate John Sullivan says "illustrates cinematically our ability to laugh at ourselves."

Film Class
LDA! was started as a filmmaking class by two professional artists: Yvonne Lynch, a former member of Graeae Theatre Company (which bills itself as "the only full time professional theatre company of disabled people in the world") and  Peter Kearns, a drama facilitator and playwright. Both had been involved with European Union-funded projects and, as Ms. Lynch describes it, "being the only two disabled people on these projects working at coordinator level, we naturally became pals. Peter had done a Masters degree in Film and TV studies and it was his idea to develop a training course for disabled people to equip them with the necessary skills to create their own films that reflected a disability point of view. When I moved to Dublin in 1997 we decided to work together on [this class]."

Funding
Three-quarters of the initial funding for LDA! was acquired through a grant from Horizon Ireland, an initiative to increase employment of disabled individuals. "The majority of these projects are in the low skill fields such horticulture - in the 1998-99 period there were only four arts related projects accepted," says Ms. Lynch. The rest of the funding was acquired through various partnerships.

Given that the only class prerequisite was enthusiasm, LDA! attracted a varied group of participants. One significant consideration was making sure that the filmmaking equipment would be accessible by class participants. Ms. Lynch says that the decision was made to use digital cameras and to perform edits by computer "because the equipment, besides being the way the industry is heading, is light, cheap, and more user friendly." Students also acquired proficiency in the mechanics of translating story concepts onto film. LDA! graduate John Owens says, "When I was shown how to put a story and storyboard together, and I then went to shoot [a video], it was the best thing in the world....LDA has been a big step up for me."

Photo montage of LDA! participants
Photo credit: John T. Owens

However, LDA! was not designed strictly to teach technical skills. Ms. Lynch states the ultimate purpose of LDA! as being "to enable [students] to create dramatic fiction that more truly reflected disabled peoples' lives." A class on disability equality, taught by Mr. Kearns, looked at traditional images of disability in the media. Other courses covered film theory and film genres.

Controversy
LDA! has no hesitancy about creating controversial works. "Lead Us Not," written by and starring Mr. Sullivan and directed by Mr. Owens, is the story of a man who wakes up in a hospital with amnesia; when found, he had been wearing a clerical collar and carrying a pornographic magazine. Mr. Sullivan says, "Inspired by my own career as a professional actor and utilizing my personal experiences with epilepsy, I was able to press my tongue against my own cheek and write a story about disability. Through ironic humor we can deconstruct some of the misconceptions of disability that 'severely' able bodied people harbor, and therefore make the issues more approachable."

Another LDA! production, "The Spa" (titled after a derogatory Irish term for someone with cerebral palsy) is a surreal interpretation by Stephan Olwill of his infuriatingly futile experiences trying to get into a pub to celebrate his 20th birthday. Mr. Olwill says, "I felt I was given the chance to show a lot of people how it feels to be in a wheelchair and to be excluded from places because of it."

"Most people found [The Spa] very amusing and pertinent-the odd person was a bit shocked by it," comments Ms. Lynch. "Similarly with 'Lead Us Not', many people find it very funny but others are unsure how to react-we feel out of fear of not being 'politically correct.'"

In addition to the class, LDA! has participated in forums on disability and the arts, notably the Arts Intervention Conference, which Mr. Owens describes as "getting the disability groups together to talk about forming as one main group for Ireland." The conference resulted in the production of a report entitled, You can't play Richard III, you're handicapped...and people will be looking at you!, as well as a video by Mr. Owens entitled "Arts Intervention Conference."

LDA Videos
The videos produced by LDA! have already gained national and international notice. "The Spa" was shown at the 1999 Galway Film Fleadh (Festival) and will be shown at a film festival in Manchester, England in October 2000. "Lead Us Not" was screened at both the Disability Arts Forum's Film Festival in London, England, and at SUPERFEST, an annual, international, juried disability film festival in Berkeley, California. "Arts Intervention Conference" will be shown in the Documentary section of the 2000 Galway Fleadh in July 2000.

As for the future of LDA!, Ms. Lynch indicates that, rather than teach another session of the course, she and Mr. Kearns are looking to develop a production company with course graduates. Mr. Owens and Mr. Sullivan have indicated that they intend to be full participants in this company; other graduates will offer their services as requested. "We hadn't dared hope at the outset that some of the participants would progress so far so quickly," Ms. Lynch comments. Her vision is that LDA! will "become a viable business which will not only provide employment for those involved but will specialize in creating work which accurately reflects disabled peoples' lives. This can be used not only to educate businesses and statutory bodies, but also, we hope, aid in the creation of opportunities to fulfill our own creative aspirations."

For further information, email LDA! at lightsdis@tinet.ie

References:

Dwyer, Ciara. "No brave victims or supercrips." Sunday Independent (Ireland), July 4, 1999,  http://www.independent.ie/1999/184/a03a.shtml

"Hope and Glory." IFTN News, June 24, 1999, http://www.iftn.ie/

Lynch, Yvonne. Personal communications

Olwill, Stephen. "'The Spa' Stephens Story" IFTN News, July 1, 1999, http://www.iftn.ie/

Owens, John. Personal communications

Quinn, Gary. "Lead Us Not." IFTN News, November 25, 1999, http://www.iftn.ie/

Scanlan, Michelle. "Lights, action." In Insight Magazine, September, 1998.  http://www.rehab.ie/insight/Sept98/article19.htm

Sullivan, John. Personal communications