This weekend, a day of inclusive film screenings in Bandra titled Skin Stories: love. desire. disability will celebrate the scarcely explored topic of sexuality in the disabled community. Strung together by Point of View, a city-based feminist non-profit, the series of short films, feature films, documentaries and discussions position the disabled in the centre of sensitive conversations about relationships, intimacy and rediscovering oneself.
Aiming to lend a voice to the often ignored myriad experiences of the disabled, the event is born from Point of View’s programme which provides both online and offline resources to navigate the intersection between disability and sexuality for women. The day-long event borrows part of its name from the programme’s weekly online publication, Skin Stories: Sexuality. Disability. Gender . The publication shares personal essays that unpack the ways in which these threads interact in societal frameworks, an exercise that will unfurl into the cinematic medium with the upcoming event. Managing editor, Shreya Ila Anasuya, shares the motivation that lies behind the programme, its publication and the day-long event. “[It] starts with the premise that people with disabilities are sexual beings just like anyone else,” she says.
Changing lives
Explaining how the silence surrounding the disabled woman is dispelled by centring their work on her, and hearing directly from her, Sexuality and Disability Programme Director Nidhi Goyal points out that solely amplifying her voice is not enough. “We need to empower her, but everything around her needs to change as well for her life to become better… [we have to] change the ethos around people with disabilities,” asserts Goyal. “When people say [we] fight for sexual rights,” she adds, “as a woman with a disability myself, I’d say we’re just fighting for the rights of people with disabilities to be human beings.”
The festival is the organisation’s latest project working towards this endeavour, joining the making of last year’s Mumbai Pride wheelchair-accessible, along with descriptions and sign language interpretation throughout the event. The organisation has also collaborated with the Mumbai Film Festival to hold inclusive screenings by audio-describing Tu Hai Mera Sunday (2016) and Turup (2017).
This is not the first time Point of View is screening films; they organised the travelling international film festival, ‘Made by Women’ to celebrate the contributions of women to cinema in 2004 and 2005. While the festival screened films by women from around the world, Point of View’s co-founder and executive director, Bishakha Datta, a filmmaker herself released her documentary In the Flesh: Three Lives in Prostitution (2002). Datta did this in order to shift the public perception of women in prostitution to simply ‘women’. “[Cinema] is one of the most incredibly transformative ways you can… introduce a kind of nuance into the conversation,” says Anasuya. The conversation surrounding sexuality and disability is extremely complex. By either invisibilising or infantilising the disabled, society separates disabled people from sexuality – a concept associated with adulthood. “It strips disabled people of agency completely,” points out Goyal.
Spotlighting intimacy
With sexuality itself being a highly taboo topic in society today, ableist attitudes of assuming and prioritising needs for the disabled disallow any inclusive discussions. “It’s a pretty tricky intersection, especially for women and non-binary people with disabilities,” says Anasuya. “They [bear] the brunt of misogyny, gender-based discrimination, as well as ableism,” she adds.
Goyal thinks that such discussions are further complicated because of how steeped Indian society is in gender roles. “[In] Uttar Pradesh, we are [still] grappling with such strong gender roles [that] a woman is only [considered] useful if she is the sole caregiver,” shares Goyal. “How will they see women with disabilities as useful when they’re receivers of care as well?” she asks.
Describing the long and careful process of curation behind the selection of films, Goyal remarks that most films on disability either stigmatise disabled people’s existence or that they resort to “inspirational porn”. “That reflects the way we view disability. Love, desire and disability — this comes so seldom together,” she says.
The screenings include Unrest (2017) a documentary made by Jennifer Brea, chronicling her affliction with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and how she connects with others across the world living with the same condition; Ben Lewin’s The Sessions (2012), which is about a nearly 40-year-old man living on an iron lung who decides to contact a sex surrogate; and Still Alice (2014). Directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, the film follows the story of a 50-year-old linguistics professor learning and coming to terms with the fact that she has early-onset Alzheimer’s. Apart from these, Marathi, Hindi and English short films will be shown, with all screenings being subtitled and audio-described. The venue is also wheelchair-accessible.
The panel discussions will cover the intersections between disability, love and sexuality and mental health. “These are not conversations about them, but conversations with them,” explains Goyal about how each discussion is led by individuals living with the conditions they will be talking about. The panellists include Brea, Goyal who lives with visual impairment, and Reshma Valliappan, an activist who lives with schizophrenia, among others. Following the Mumbai screenings, the selection of films will carry these conversations forward to Chennai on March 3 this year, with some changes, and different panellists.
Skin Stories: love. desire.disability . will be held at Daughters of St. Paul, Bandra, on February 17 at 11 a.m. Entry is free but e-mail zarah@pointofview.org to confirm attendance.
