ReelAbilities ‘20: Angel’s Mirror (short)

Despite some statutory reform (considered to be part of the Olympic hosting PR spruce-up), disability is still widely stigmatized in Mainland China. That is why a young boy who is new to the neighborhood cannot imagine why a pretty girl never comes out to play. A connection may or may not be forged in Cheng Chao’s short film, Angel’s Mirror, which “screens” as part of this year’s ReelAbilities Film Festival New York—now presented online.

Ironically, the only audible dialogue in Mirror are spoken by the boy’s mother, who sends him out to play with half a Yuan, while the adults unpack. He soon falls in with a pack of similarly aged boys, who congregate around the courtyard’s ping pong tables. At first, he is confused when they all stop and turn to stare in unison, but he quickly realizes they are gawking at Angel. When he pulls out a pocket mirror to signal her, he starts to communicate and interact with her—but he still doesn’t fully get it.

It is impressive how much Cheng’s film conveys without dialogue. It is a sensitive, classy production that looks and sounds great, thanks to Liu Lianjie’s child’s eye cinematography and the warm, delicate musical selections licensed from Motohiro Nakashima. Hao Yiming and Zhang Zhijing are both wonderfully expressive young actors, as the new boy and Angel, respectively. However, Cheng’s conclusion doesn’t really hit the inspirational note he is going for. In fact, it is a bit baffling.

ReelAbilities ‘20: Oliver Sacks—His Own Life

Oliver Sacks died in 2015, but watching a documentary profile at such times as these can only make us wonder of what he would have made of the age of the CCP-virus, a.k.a. COVID-19. The practice of social distancing probably would have pained him, but he would surely be doing his part as a medical doctor (thank you medical professionals and first responders). Sacks did not live long enough to witness the pandemic Xi-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed allowed to escape early detection in Wuhan to infect the world, but he had time to see his writings embraced by an initially skeptical medical community and to take stock of his life and career in Ric Burns’ Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, which “screens” as part of this year’s ReelAbilities Film Festival New York—now presented online.

Burns gives Sacks the full biographical treatment, tracing the psychological and emotional impact of his schizophrenic brother’s struggles during his formative years. His complicated relationship to his mother, who probably never really accepted Sacks’ sexuality, also features prominently. Although these issues clearly contributed to Sacks’ bouts with depression, they arguably helped make him such an unusually empathetic doctor.

Ironically, the book most responsible for Sacks’ fame, Awakenings, was initially a modest seller that made Sacks almost a pariah amongst the neurological establishment. His hide-bound peers simply refused to believe he had produced such dramatic results administering L-Dopa to patients in an apparent locked-in neurological state. They didn’t really change their mind until the Hollywood movie co-starring jazz legend Dexter Gordon was released.

Burns and Sacks’ colleagues do a nice job explaining how many of Sacks’ concepts and practices were so far ahead of his time. The study of what constitutes “consciousness” concerned Sacks long before Nobel Laureate Francis Crick started consulting him on the subject.

ReelAbilities 20: Code of the Freaks (now online)

Anyone who has read David Skal & Elias Savada’s biography Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning knows how overdue we are for a documentary profile of the eccentric filmmaker. If any of film could sustain a feature-length examination, it would be his cult classic Freaks. This is not that film, but the controversial 1932 release is still an important touchstone in Code of the Freaks, a survey of disability in cinema, which screens as the “opening night” film of this year’s ReelAbilities Film Festival New York—now online for obvious reasons.

If you find the films discussed in this documentary “inspirational,” than the commentators largely think you are a shallow jerkweed. Frankly, it is rather rewarding to hear them torch the cheap sentimentality of films like Radio and Men of Honor. However, films you probably thought were quality, like Jim Sheridan’s My Left Foot and Randa Haines’ Children of a Lesser God fare little better.

Admittedly, many of the clichés that are called out are rather problematic, like the prevalence of mercy killings as acceptable resolutions in films such as Million Dollar Baby. Still, this documentary just doesn’t have hardly anything positive to say about any film, except Browning’s Freaks. Their treatment of the Universal monster movies is rather unfair, because those films always humanized the monsters (especially so, given their era). Interpreting the Mummy’s wrappings as code for the bandages of disfigurement is really pushing it. Someone also misattributes Frankenstein to Browning, which will not help its case with old school horror fans.

Again, the film makes a legitimate point about representation, but it would be much cleverer if it singled out cases to praise. It would be great if more thesps of differing abilities could be cast in roles that are not defined by such status. Arguably, this film creates a disincentive to represent the disabled. Why would a filmmaker bother, if a doc like this will turn around and slam them for not getting everything absolutely perfect.