Documentary and disability
- Submitting institution
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Bournemouth University
- Unit of assessment
- 34 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
- Output identifier
- 320649
- Type
- B - Edited book
- DOI
-
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- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- ISBN
- 9781137598936
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- October
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
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3 - Media Industries
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This collection is the first to intersect the fields of documentary and disability studies. Brylla was the project’s initiator and principle co-editor, overseeing the commissioning and review of the contributions. He also co-authored the introduction and single-authored chapter 5. Changes in legislation and public awareness have increased disability portrayals and inclusion within the contemporary media landscape, and related scholarly discourses have expanded in cultural, media and disability studies. However, there are still three uncharted areas: (1) the analysis of a documentary’s reinforcement of disability stereotypes through audio-visual labels that compress individuals into homogenised subgroups; (2) the investigation of a documentary’s potential to create alternative images that encourage a pluralistic view of disability; (3) the historical mapping of a documentary’s contribution to the (in)visibility of disability in particular socio-cultural contexts. The book’s introduction discusses these three themes and argues that, historically, the audio-visual documentation of the human body has defined what it means to be disabled. It also presents the main paradigm for commissioning and reviewing the international contributions: a pragmatic and interdisciplinary bricolage approach that surpasses established orthodoxies in related academic and non-academic fields. This is manifested by the unique inclusion of media practitioners who discuss the relationship between filmmakers and participants with regards to representation, activism and advocacy. For example, Brylla’s own chapter reconfigures current blindness stereotypes, using cognitive-phenomenological methods, in his film practice. His focus on ‘emic ordinariness’ aims to challenge binary schemas entrenched in audiences and filmmakers alike. As such, Brylla critically questions the use of common narrative and aesthetic formulas, whilst targeting a mainstream spectator through the filmic mediation of embodied empathy. The book features in Brylla’s biannual public masterclass series “Documentary Concepts and Research” (UCL – Open City). It also had a book launch at the Visible Evidence XXIV conference in Buenos Aires.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
