Disability on Film: An Exploration of Film Codes’ Obstructiveness in City Lights and Children of a Lesser God

Authors

  • Michael T. Smith Assistant Professor of English Alfaisal University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v10i3.816

Keywords:

Disability; Blindness; Deafness; Film; Chaplin

Abstract

Looking at two films that center upon a sensory disability (Chaplin’s City Lights and Randa Haines’ Children of a Lesser God), I propose that despite many gestures of sensitivity, these films reinforce an othering of the non-normative subject through conventional film codes and conventions. For example, in Haines’ film, the protagonist James Leeds (William Hurt) delivers a lecture on facing his deaf students so that they can read his lips. However, this scene is shot with his back turned away from us (the viewer). Rather than presenting an instance of irony, moments like this reinforce notions of normativity. Specifically, it’s the mechanism(s) behind and within film production that reinforce problematic notions of “normality” while trying to trump them.

Author Biography

Michael T. Smith, Assistant Professor of English Alfaisal University

Assistant Professor of English Alfaisal University

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Published

2021-12-08

How to Cite

Smith, M. T. (2021). Disability on Film: An Exploration of Film Codes’ Obstructiveness in City Lights and Children of a Lesser God. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 10(3), 69–95. https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v10i3.816

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 3 (2021)

Section

Articles

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