Justin Edgar, director of Special People, is outraged because British film censors chose to label the film with a warning that it contains "disability themes." The award-winning comedy follows a neurotic film-maker who teaches young wheelchair users about film-making. Most cast members have disabilities.
Ian Macrae, the editor of Disability Now magazine, said of the warning: "It's the exact equivalent of putting a warning on a Spike Lee film saying, 'This film contains black people.' It's medieval thinking."
Advocates say that the warning might deter people from seeing the film. Sasha Hardway, one of the film's stars, expressed concern that people might see the warning and choose not to see Special People because of a presumption that it would be "about illness, and that it will be negative and depressing."
Earlier this year, disability advocates protested the film Tropic Thunder for its use of the word "retard," and its controversial satire of films featuring characters with mental disabilities. From the same body that issued the 'disability themes' warning for Special People, Tropic Thunder received the following warnings: "Contains strong language, sex references and comic bloody violence." Another controversial film about disability, Blindness, received these warnings: "Strong violence, some sexual."
I was unable to find any other film which has ever received a warning regarding disability themes. What do you think? Is this warning appropriate, or should the British Board of Film Classification issue an apology? Was the warning given because this film, unlike most, uses actors who actually have the impairments of the characters they portray, rather than employing able-bodied actors to play character with disabilities?
