Films that raise issues
Afraid of the Dark
Sexism and disabilism are combined in this story of a blind woman who is the victim of a 'psychopathic' man. See also Wait Until Dark , below.
A Patch of Blue
Disabilism and racism combine when a blind teenage girl discovers self-respect as she develops a friendship with a man she does not know is black.
The Best Years of Our Lives
Reverse sexism and disabilism.
The Big Parade
Reverse sexism and disabilism.
The Bone Collector
Denzel Washington's character is disliked by his police chief because he is a clever black man and a disabled person with quadriplegia.
Born on the Fourth of July
Reverse sexism and disabilism.
Candyman
Tells of the apparition of a black man who had his hand chopped off for having a relationship with a white woman some 100 years before. He returns to a downtown Chicago housing estate to attack and mutilate white women with his prosthesis, or hook. Such films play to the racism, sexism and disabilism of the audience to create horror.
Coming Home
Reverse sexism and disabilism.
The Dark Angel
Reverse sexism and disabilism.
The Men
Reverse sexism and disabilism.
Passion Fish
A daytime 'soap' actress, paralysed in a car crash, returns to her home in Louisiana to drown her sorrows in drink. The arrival of the black nurse brings up deeply ingrained racism, but sparks her into coming to terms with her internalised oppression towards her impairment.
Philadelphia
Homophobia and AIDS
The Piano
A Scottish woman (Holly Hunter) with a speech impairment travels with her young daughter for an arranged marriage to a landowner in New Zealand (Sam Neill) She is subjected to cruel sexism and disablism by him, only to find solace in a bizarre erotic relationship with another man (Harvey Keitel).
Rabbit-Proof Fence
This is the true story of Molly Craig, a young black Australian girl who leads her younger sister and cousin in an escape from an official government camp, set up as part of an official government policy to train them as domestic workers and integrate them into white society. Molly guides the girls on an epic journey, one step ahead of the authorities, over 1,500 miles of Australia's outback in search of the rabbit-proof fence that bisects the continent and will lead them home. These three girls are part of what is referred to today as the 'Stolen Generations'.
Wait Until Dark
Another film with a blind woman as victim of a dangerous man. See also Afraid of the Dark , above.
