Film Art Inc., author Yukie Hanawa
Cover illustration for "Obstacles on Screen: What Understanding Each Other Hides"
2024
I illustrated the cover for Yukie Hanawa's book, "Disabilities on Screen: What Understanding Each Other Hides" (Film Art, Inc.).
How have films depicted disability?
From history, narrative patterns, identification through reenactment, and personal involvement, this book unravels the connection between film and disability from various angles.
Recommended by Sho Miyake and Miyuki Tanaka.
With "CODA: A Love Song," a film about a deaf child, winning three Academy Awards including Best Picture, and with promising young Japanese directors like "Drive My Car," "Keiko: Look Up," and "LOVE LIFE" continuing to produce films featuring people with disabilities, isn't it time to reconsider how disability is depicted, and more importantly, how we perceive it, rather than simplifying it with terms like "inspiration porn" or "coexistence"?
This book discusses "how disability has been depicted on screen, and how it is now portrayed in more contemporary films," tracing the evolution of the image of disability in film from the silent era to the present day, and chronicling the history of "disability on screen" diachronically. Furthermore, it presents how the "changes in societal views of disability" that form the basis of this "evolution of the image of disability" occurred, along with the fundamentals of "disability studies."
In addition to chronicling history, the book re-examines the connection between film and disability from the perspectives of communication, the portrayal of disability, and personal experience. Why do so many films dealing with disability depict communication and narratives progressing from "failure" to "achievement"? Is something being concealed when we identify with disability as portrayed through visual and auditory depictions? Should only people with disabilities play the roles of people with disabilities? These and other relevant themes are discussed based on recent films depicting disability.
From classics like "Rain Man," "Forrest Gump," and "I Am Sam," to more recent hits such as "Wonder," "The Intouchables," and "Coda," this book offers a fresh perspective on films that have garnered a wide audience. It serves as a new starting point for thought and discussion on how we, as audiences, should view disability.
[Works covered in this book] Freaks, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Elephant Man, Autumn Sonata, Pauline, Shoestip, Rain Man, Forrest Gump, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Dream Team, Wonder, The Intouchables, I Am Sam, Ringer!, The Siblings of the Cape, Coda, The Sound of Metal, Keiko, Percent, and others.
table of contents
Introduction—Connecting Disability and Film Chapter 1 Changing Perceptions of Disability in Society—What Lies Behind "Coexistence" Chapter 2 Evolution of the Image of People with Disabilities in Film—From "Monsterized People with Disabilities" to "Disabled/Competent People with Disabilities" Chapter 3 Disability Depicted as a Communication Problem—What Do Stories of "Inadequacy" and "Achievement" Mean? Chapter 4 Disability Reproduced Visually and Auditorily—How Can "Not Hearing" Be Represented? Chapter 5 Disability Performed Physically—How Can the Reality of Disability Be Evaluated? Conclusion—From "How It Is Depicted" to "How It Is Received" Index
profile
[Author] Yukie Ban, born in 1988. Associate Professor, Faculty of Letters, Seijo University. Specializes in communication studies and media studies. Author of "People with Disabilities and Laughter" (2018, Shinyosha). Co-author of "Lectures on Media Communication Studies" (2019, Nakanishiya Publishing), "Media Theory of Content" (2022, Shinyosha), and "Media Remix" (2023, Minerva Shobo).
Information
Author: Yukie Hanawa
Publisher: Film Art Inc.
Release date: November 26, 2024
Design: Yasuo Totsuka (nu)
Cover illustration: Iku Harada