The Crip Cin­e­ma Archive wants to change the way we think about dis­abil­i­ty in film

The his­to­ry of dis­abil­i­ty rep­re­sen­ta­tion in cin­e­ma is a long and dif­fi­cult one, rife with false­hoods, insult­ing por­tray­als and mis­in­for­ma­tion. Despite peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties hav­ing always pos­sessed the same cre­ativ­i­ty and tal­ent as every­one else, their rep­re­sen­ta­tion behind and in front of the cam­era has tra­di­tion­al­ly been min­i­mal. Films fea­tur­ing dis­abled char­ac­ters are few and far between, and when they do exist, it’s usu­al­ly exclu­sive­ly with the involve­ment of non-dis­abled film­mak­ers and actors. Slow­ly but sure­ly, things are begin­ning to change, with films includ­ing The Peanut But­ter Fal­con, CODA and Crip Camp among recent titles improv­ing the way dis­abil­i­ty is rep­re­sent­ed on screen. But must-need­ed change can’t come soon enough.

Now comes the Crip Cin­e­ma Archive, found­ed by Emi­ly Sim­mons, which aims to pro­vide a resource for film fans and pro­fes­sion­als alike that cham­pi­ons the sto­ries and tal­ent of peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties both behind and in front of the cam­era. LWLies spoke to Emi­ly to find out what inspired the project, and how she hopes the Crip Cin­e­ma Archive can be a part of mov­ing dis­abled rep­re­sen­ta­tion in the cin­e­ma forward.

LWLies: What was the impe­tus behind start­ing the Crip Cin­e­ma Archive?

Emi­ly Sim­mons: There are so many feel­ings and moments and con­ver­sa­tions that have led to the cre­ation of the archive. I’ve been fix­at­ed with crip cin­e­ma for a long time – it’s hard to pin­point when this start­ed, but it recent­ly rekin­dled fol­low­ing dis­cus­sions with a friend in the indus­try about the ​‘lack’ of it. Aching to see our­selves hon­est­ly rep­re­sent­ed on that big screen we love so dear­ly, but are time and time again exclud­ed from.

Through my research, what once seemed an unin­hab­it­ed genre – near-invis­i­ble in con­tem­po­rary cin­e­mat­ic dis­course – start­ed appear­ing to me rich, com­plex, and abundant.

Crip Cin­e­ma Archive cel­e­brates this his­to­ry of dis­abled cin­e­ma. It’s a cin­e­ma of resis­tance. It feels impor­tant to col­lect and val­ue these films. Films that inform the world on who we are as dis­abled peo­ple, what we have to con­tribute, and what we have con­tributed to a medi­um as pow­er­ful as the mov­ing image.

I’m con­scious of the harm that neg­a­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tions of our com­mu­ni­ty on screen have caused, and con­tin­ue to cause each Oscar sea­son, and hope the archive can offer a dif­fer­ent lens through which to view crip cin­e­mat­ic his­to­ry. That it doesn’t flat­ten or avoid the com­plex­i­ty, but instead records its abun­dance and brings it out of the shad­ows. The impact each film has on dis­abled peo­ple out­side the con­fines of the cin­e­ma remains at the fore­front of my mind.

The term ​‘crip’ has quite a dif­fi­cult his­to­ry for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties – how did you decide upon the name?

The term ​‘crip’ comes from ​‘crip­ple’, and it’s a reclaimed term by dis­abled peo­ple. (You’ll notice I use the words crip and dis­abled inter­change­ably – I love both and think it’s impor­tant to use dis­abled too.) For me, crip is a term that dis­plays pride in my iden­ti­ty as a dis­abled per­son, and also implies a cer­tain polit­i­cal posi­tion­ing and resis­tance with­in it as well. Crip the­o­ry empha­sis­es the inter­sec­tion of dis­abil­i­ty with expe­ri­ences like sex­u­al­i­ty, race, class, and gen­der. It feels like a word that loud­ly express­es love and accep­tance for a real­ly big, var­ied range of peo­ple and experiences.

In some ways, it’s a hard thing for me to put into words. It’s arguably the ques­tion I receive most from non-dis­abled peo­ple I speak with about the project. ​‘What does crip mean?’ ​‘Am I allowed to say it?’ I con­sid­ered adding an explain­er to the site, but two things stopped me. First, is that I don’t real­ly feel like I’m the per­son to define crip. It’s chang­ing all the time. Sec­ond, is that I kept com­ing back to the idea that this project is, first and fore­most, for our com­mu­ni­ty. Crips know what I mean!

I think we have to live as we want things to be now, rather than hope for future con­di­tions that may or may not some­day arise (of course, eas­i­er said than done). It took a long time for me to reach this lev­el of love and accep­tance for being dis­abled that I now have, and it’s always a work in progress. Using crip feels like a mark­er of all that ongo­ing work. It’s defiant.

Do you have any per­son­al favourite films when it comes to dis­abil­i­ty rep­re­sen­ta­tion – ie. films you think han­dle the sub­ject real­ly well?

So many! Safe direct­ed by Todd Haynes is prob­a­bly the film that most direct­ly led to the cre­ation of Crip Cin­e­ma Archive. I was in awe the first time I saw it. The way it cap­tures the expe­ri­ence of ill­ness under cap­i­tal­ism – the iso­la­tion, the gaslight­ing, the ableist ide­ol­o­gy behind a lot of ​‘treat­ment’. It’s also just got so many fun, ridicu­lous moments and looks beau­ti­ful. Every­one should see this film.

Sick, Blue Sea is anoth­er favourite. I sob every time I watch it. It explores nau­sea and envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns through a Tum­blr blog nar­rat­ed by a sick teenage sperm whale. Lizzy Rose is one of the first artists I came across with the same ill­ness as me, and this film cap­tures the expe­ri­ence of chron­ic nau­sea so pre­cise­ly in such a sil­ly, humor­ous way while retain­ing all of the depth and dark­ness – it means a lot to me. All of her work does. I’m real­ly hon­oured her fam­i­ly and friends allowed me to include her work in the archive.

More recent­ly I’ve been think­ing a lot about The Girl Who Sold The Sun. It has a very impor­tant crip dance scene. Joy­ous. Crip Camp and Blue feel like crip cin­e­ma canon. They’re so rich in sub­stance, so entire­ly crip, and so well exe­cut­ed. The his­to­ry of crip cin­e­ma would sure­ly be incom­plete with­out men­tion­ing these.

What are your goals for what the archive might become?

I have three goals for the archive: to cre­ate a resource for dis­abled film­mak­ers and film lovers seek­ing out crip cin­e­ma; to be a launch­ing pad for fur­ther dis­cus­sions about how to define crip cin­e­ma; what it is, what it isn’t, and what it could be; and to imag­ine bet­ter crip film futures – in front of and behind the lens – and make them a reality.

In the short term, I’m excit­ed to start curat­ing some events and host­ing pan­els. I just want to have lots of con­ver­sa­tions with a wide range of peo­ple and see where we get to. I’ll also be adding more films to the archive, and seek­ing to improve the acces­si­bil­i­ty of the site.

Long term, I see the need for it to become a phys­i­cal archival col­lec­tion. (If any­one would like to fund that, please do get in touch haha.) Some of the great­est crip cin­e­ma out there is still real­ly hard to access. I want it to be more acces­si­ble. In a dream world, the web­site would actu­al­ly host all of the films – avail­able for all crips to watch from their beds when­ev­er they like.

This is an unfund­ed project and I am chron­i­cal­ly ill and neu­ro­di­ver­gent. I’m try­ing to not just talk about crip theory/​films but to actu­al­ly embody crip ways of work­ing. The project is mov­ing on crip time and this is a big part of it. In my emails with the film­mak­ers I made sure to let them know there is no rush to respond – and I give myself that reminder too. It feels real­ly good and scary to do this.

Are there any first steps that film pro­fes­sion­als and fans can take to be more mind­ful of dis­abil­i­ty in their film watch­ing and film going?

A great ques­tion! I think it often comes back to ​‘Noth­ing About Us With­out Us’. A slo­gan empha­sis­ing the impor­tance of dis­abled people’s involve­ment in any­thing about dis­abled peo­ple. When you’re see­ing a dis­abled per­son on screen, or watch­ing a sto­ry about dis­abil­i­ty, ask your­self who was involved in the cre­ation of the film? Whose human­i­ty is being acknowledged/​respected and whose isn’t? Are dis­abled peo­ple in on the joke, or the object of one? A num­ber of Best Actor/​Actress Oscar win­ners in the last 15 years have been giv­en to able-bod­ied actors play­ing dis­abled roles, and yet dis­abled peo­ple are not even close to equal­ly rep­re­sent­ed in the film indus­try. It’s a strange disconnect.

In terms of film pro­fes­sion­als, there’s a lot of work to do. There’s more to it than access, but the stan­dard for access across film­mak­ing and exhi­bi­tion is still so low that it is a big bar­ri­er. Why do cin­e­mas and gal­leries not include open cap­tions for every film screen­ing? We don’t con­sid­er this access for for­eign lan­guage films. Cap­tions ben­e­fit so many peo­ple and are very cheap to pro­duce. Access needs to be inte­grat­ed into every screen­ing, not a siloed part of a cin­e­ma or festival’s pro­gram­ming. Dis­abled peo­ple are 23% of the pop­u­la­tion. We aren’t a niche audi­ence and we shouldn’t be segregated.

How can peo­ple sup­port the project going forward?

It real­ly means a lot to me when peo­ple watch the films and real­ly engage with the work! Have con­ver­sa­tions with your friends and col­leagues about crip cin­e­ma and what it means to you. Apart from that – fol­low us on Insta­gram, sub­scribe to the Sub­tack, keep an eye out for upcom­ing events and please come along! I also may launch a Patre­on or some kind of crowd­fun­der soon if there’s enough of an appetite for it.

Find out more about The Crip Cin­e­ma Archive.