Shameless: The Art of Disability

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Audience Member Beautiful documentary highlighting contributions of the disabled to the arts. The stories are touching and the people terribly compelling. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member Shameless deserves a lot of credit for what it's done. It's taken the documentary layout that has begun conquering the genre lately, that of the subject being made into a victim, and gives it a great big shot in the mouth. In this film about the disabled, Klein can't vicitimize the subjects because she herself is one. Klein was disable after a vicious stroke, and this is her first film since the catastrophe. She surrounded herself with friends and colleagues of the disabled art community, 5 including herself, and proceeded to make a film about art, disability, life, love, and the laughability of pity. The reason the film succeeds so resoundingly is because we see everything through the lens of the disabled subjects, and they choose how they want to be seen. In that way, we avoid the typical cliches of inspirational films about disability, in which the participants are painted as inspiring martyrs who evoke pity from the audience. The subjects of Shameless state that they're sick of being admired and inspiring, and that's when you know things are getting good. The intimate portrait we're shown of the lives of these people is extensive, and we learn of their disabilities, their lives, and their art that has, in many ways, come out of it. Of course there's inspiration, there often has to be with art, but in Shameless it doesn't come from a voyeuristic admiration of the daily struggle of the handicapped, it comes through our viewing these people differently than any other film has told us too. Not as minorities or victims but as artists. Klein enables us to be inspired by their actions and creations instead of their oh so brave resolve to live with disability. She allows herself to be void of political correctness by skipping the middle man and going straight to the source. Shameless is a truly refreshing and wonderful documentary film that many modern docs could take a real lesson from. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Shameless: The Art of Disability

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