Dear Fans, Friends, and Supporters. All your wonderful comments and reviews are received with love and gratitude. We are exceptionally pleased to share the following outstanding review of Plain Jane The SHOCKUMENTARY by Filmmaker, Cheryl Green.
 |
Cheryl Green
Co-Director, Co-Producer of
“Who Am I To Stop It”
|
A documentary film is a gift to the viewers. You get to sit back and relax while the subject of the film bears all. That said, rarely do you find one so rousing, engaging, and so bearing-it-all with such great spirits as "Plain Jane: The Shockumentary."
Jane Hash has done an incredible service to the disability community by making and starring in a documentary that shows her just as she is: a complete, complex, well-rounded, sexy, sexual person with a full life and a disability.
This film blatantly rejects the dehumanizing tropes so often saved up for disability documentaries: disabled person as pitiful help object, as subject of ceaseless inspiration, or as hero at overcoming personal obstacles. You see each one of those limiting stereotypes torn to bits in this film, though she is never heavy-handed. She accomplishes this by letting you observe her day-to-day world and by explaining when explanation is needed. For instance, how many people who criticize Social Security benefits recipients for not working know about financial injustices such as this scourge: go to work and earn a living, or keep your health insurance, which would allow you to keep on living.
Don't let that last sentence turn you off from jumping in, though, because you will be roaring with laughter and delight throughout the movie. Whether she perches serenely upon a rock in the middle of a rushing river, rides her power wheelchair like a chariot, complete with goat-costumed men with harnesses, or yells in frantic rage from the backseat of her car that she should be the one driving (she is 2 foot 7), the movie is nothing if not an absolute blast.
"Plain Jane" is groundbreaking, bringing together so many pieces of the disability experience that are typically silenced, such as sexuality, self-advocacy, abuse and injustice, and humor. I have the DVD, which I am promptly sending to a friend to watch. So I'm counting the seconds until this movie is available streaming. Because it simply must be watched and discussed sooner than we can get DVDs around in the mail.
- Cheryl Green
No comments:
Post a Comment