In the short film, “Vision Portraits,” there are many different forms of power represented throughout the movie. This film portrays many theories and terms on intersectionality, ableism, race, and ethnicity. This film allows the audience to feel the emotions that these various people experience in their daily lives as they deal with having impaired vision. This film addresses many different stereotypes and the misrepresentations that are labeled on people with impaired vision, implying that they are less capable than those who do not have a disability; they also express the pressures that they feel to act a certain way in the society we live in. Many people from an outsider’s perspective would say that not being able to see would be considered as a disability that most would assume should slow a person down, but in this film, the viewers witness how each person overcomes any challenge that they may be facing. Each individual expresses a different form of art that they are passionate about throughout the film, ultimately, proving that they are still able to do what they love while being visually impaired.
Throughout the film, intersectionality is shown and highly represented by the individuals in their way. In 1989 Kimberle Crenshaw was the first person to express what intersectionality is, which is when people are often at a disadvantage by multiple sources of oppression, such as their gender identity, race, sexual orientation, and disability (Kaufman, 2018). Intersectionality is apparent in this film because most people believe that being visually impaired is a disadvantage to have, but that all depends on the way a person deals with their disability. Everyone in this movie takes a visual impairment in a positive light rather than detrimental. Each person does not let their visual impairment become a disadvantage in their daily lives, but instead, they push through the challenges they deal with by using their disability as a motivator to continue to succeed in the art form that they are passionate about pursuing. Rodney Evans is the director and the main character throughout the film. He is a visually impaired black gay man that only has ten percent of his vision, which can be extremely challenging for him to do the job he loves as a movie director because most people would believe that he is at a disadvantage. Rodney Evans does not take his visual impairment in a negative way when it comes to his career; he instead uses it to his advantage by only being able to specifically focus on the actors during the production of his movies. His disability prevents him from being distracted by the action going on around him, which allows him to stay concentrated on only what is in front of him. Ultimately, this had led Evans to become a successful and well-known director by beating the odds and overcoming the stereotypes as a visually impaired black gay man.
Ableism is frequently expressed throughout the film by every person revealing their struggles that they experience as a blind person. Being able-bodied is when a person is capable of doing anything with no signs of being physically disabled. Many of the characters in this film speak about the pressures that they feel to fit into society as a visually impaired person by trying to hide the fact that they are disabled. Ryan Knighton is an author that is blind, but he is still able to do the art that he loves as a writer. During the film, Knighton demonstrates how he is capable of writing by showing the people around him that the computer reads out loud what he is typing in order to understand what he has written out. Ryan Knighton is an excellent example in the film to show everyone that he is able-bodied or also known as “supercrip” which is a term used to express how people with a disability can still succeed and overcome the difficult tasks that they have to deal with despite what everyone else may assume (Harnett, 2000). It is evident that everyone in this film proves to be able-bodied and expresses that being visually impaired does not mean that one’s life is over or a person can not continue doing what they love. There may be struggles they have to endure, but that can also make a person come out even stronger than before.
Race and ethnicity is represented during this film as some characters express their own stories. Especially, Kayla Hamilton, she is the only black woman who is featured in this movie, and she shares her journey as a visually impaired dancer. Kayla Hamilton talks about the difficulties she experienced growing up as a black woman who is visually impaired. She explains that growing up, people would make fun of the colour of her skin, and on top of that, she had to wear an eyepatch to help fix her vision, which ultimately led her to lay in bed all day. Hamilton’s parents put her into dance to help improve her self-confidence, and it is now her career in life. She expresses in the film that her goal is to inspire other black women and show people that nothing should hold a person back in life, whether that be the colour of their skin or a disability. Kayla Hamilton has a group of black women performing a dance that features in this film, and she explains to everyone that she wants the audience to wear eye patches to allow them to watch the dance from a different perspective. This movement is hugely empowering for both black women and the visually impaired.
Overall, this film showed many different perspectives from people who are visually impaired and what they deal with in their daily lives. This movie is inspiring and proves that anybody can overcome the struggles that they may be facing as long as they stay positive and continue to do what they are passionate about pursuing. The people in this film portray new viewpoints as well as understanding the labels that the disabled have. The audience becomes aware that just because a person may have a setback in life does not mean that it has to be the end of their journey. Throughout the movie, everyone acknowledges their personal experiences from being visually impaired, and they each handle their situations differently, but always in a positive manner.
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References
Harnett, A. (2000). Escaping the Evil Avenger and the Supercrip: Images of Disability in Popular Television. [online] Arrow.tudublin.ie. Available at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1077&context=icr [Accessed 13 Feb. 2020].
Kaufman, P. (2018). Intersectionality for Beginners. Everyday Sociology Blog. [online] www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2018/04/intersectionality-for-beginners.html#more [Accessed 12 Feb. 2020].
Vision Portraits Blog 