Writing Homework Help

This week:   This week you will watch one film with a contemporary setting and a character with a disability. When you finish, you will write a critique of the film. 

Skills

The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice the following skills that are essential to your success in this course / in school / in this field / in professional life beyond school: 

MLO #5.1  Analyze and critique popular press, commercial advertising, music, movies and television shows for accuracy and bias in the representation of individuals with disabilities with attention to cliché and stereotypical versus authentic portrayals of disability.

Knowledge

This assignment will also help you to become familiar with the following important content knowledge in this discipline: 

• Course Objective 5: Examine the global origins and evolution of the social, governmental, media and familial factors shaping stigma, discrimination and prejudice against people with disabilities and their impact on the individual and the community of people with disabilities.  

Tasks

Watch one film with a contemporary setting and a character with a disability. The character need not be the lead.  

After watching the movie, write a critique of the film. A Critique is not a summary or movie review.  A critique analyzes the content.  You will analyze the portrayal of a character with a disability in the film you choose.  A critique need not be negative.  Use the following questions to guide your critique:

• Observe how the character is portrayed, and how others relate to the individual.  What are the attitudes about the individual, and how important is the character?

Is their disability gratuitous, integral to the story, or incidental to the story?

Think about the stereotypes you learned about in the module this week. Is the character portrayed as a villain, helpless, etc.?  What scenes or events demonstrated this?

A sample critique of Me Before You can be found here. A critique of Finding Nemo can be found here.  You may not use Me Before You or Finding Nemo for this assignment. 

• Need help selecting a film? A list of film with portrayals of people with disabilities can be found here.