The National Federation for The Blind takes offense at the portrayal of blind people in the upcoming thriller Blindness, starring Julianne Moore and Marc Ruffalo. Blindness portrays a breakdown in society after a virus starts wiping out everyone’s vision, turning them into savages who compete for meager resources. Blind people think it’s outrageous that they’re portrayed so negatively and plan a protest of the film, which is out in limited release in the US this Friday, October 3.
Blind people quarantined in a mental asylum, attacking each other, soiling themselves, trading sex for food. For Marc Maurer, who’s blind, such a scenario _ as shown in the movie “Blindness” _ is not a clever allegory for a breakdown in society.
Instead, it’s an offensive and chilling depiction that Maurer fears could undermine efforts to integrate blind people into the mainstream.
“The movie portrays blind people as monsters, and I believe it to be a lie,” said Maurer, president of the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind. “Blindness doesn’t turn decent people into monsters.”
The organization plans to protest the movie, released by Miramax Films, at 75 theaters around the country when it’s released Friday. Blind people and their allies will hand out fliers and carry signs. Among the slogans: “I’m not an actor. But I play a blind person in real life.”
The movie reinforces inaccurate stereotypes, including that the blind cannot care for themselves and are perpetually disoriented, according to the NFB.
“We face a 70 percent unemployment rate and other social problems because people don’t think we can do anything, and this movie is not going to help _ at all,” said Christopher Danielsen, a spokesman for the organization.
[AP via Huffington Post]
Seven staff members of the National Federation for The Blind, including three people who are not blind, attended a screening of the film last week. They’re not simply responding to the trailers and have a legitimate beef with the film.
The film was not received well at Cannes, with the jury giving it a 1.3 average out of 4. Blindness has a 41% aggregate critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it seems like people either love it or hate it. It’s criticized as being too self-important and negative in tone. The film also features Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Here are two trailers.
http://www.celeb*tchy.com/14515/national_federation_for_the_blind_to_pro...
Shoe Studio
This guy is taking the movie way to seriously. Come on...get some press another way. The movie deals with people who have their sight taken from them, a mass of people experience it...of course there will be a wave of panic. They are quarantined, shut out from the world. Consider it being in prison without the natural ability to see what's going on around you. Wouldn't you freak out too? If you are close to starvation, you'd probably do close to anything to acquire food.
Sidenote, my brother is blind. I know first-hand what a blind person goes through to live a normal life. There is a 70% unemployment rate for a reason, it takes sight to do most jobs...watching my brother struggle to find work and then get work only to find it's too difficult to do the tasks given to him is just heartbreaking. So like a lot of blind people he draws disability and hates that he has to.
I just don't get why a fictional movie would anger someone to the point of protesting a film that took a lot of hard work and money to produce.
1The NFB is (rightly) protesting this movie because it exploits the worst stereotypes about blind people for entertainment value.
2I applaud the NFB for bringing this to my attention.
3I applaud the NFB for bringing this to my attention.
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