Matthieu Bron, dir. Body and Soul (De Corpo e Alma). New York: Third World Newsreel, 2011. DVD, 54 mins.
Reviewed by Lyusyena Kirakosyan (Virginia Tech)
Published on H-Disability (October, 2015)
Commissioned by Iain C. Hutchison (University of Glasgow)
Matthieu Bron, the director of Body and Soul (De Corpo e Alma), has created a film that tells the stories of three young Mozambicans with impairments in a way that not only reveals their humanity and dignity but also teaches us, the viewers, a great deal about how to love and respect ourselves and others around us. This documentary appears to be prompting conversation, opening eyes, and changing perceptions wherever it is shown. It explores the everyday experiences of Mariana, Vasco, and Victória, their ways of being, and their doubts and hopes as each creates his or her place in Maputo, their hometown. The award-winning film took more than three years to make, time that allowed Bron to form close relationships with his young protagonists so that each felt comfortable sharing the intimate details of their thoughts and lives.
Bron has acknowledged that he did not set out to produce a documentary about people with disabilities.[1] The idea of making this film was born during a workshop conducted by a Mozambican choreographer, Panaibra Gabriel Canda, the founder of CulturArte, a development center for the performing arts. When Canda and Bron met, Canda was developing a contemporary dance project involving young people with and without impairments. Mariana, Vasco, and Victória were participants in the initiative. The workshop was Bron’s first encounter with physically impaired youths performing contemporary dance, and the filmmaker became interested in their challenges and experiences as they went about their daily lives. He wished to understand what made each want to dance and what gave them the strength to address the physical and psychological obstacles each encountered every day.[2]
The film depicts the qualities and attributes of each of the three youths, their dreams, joys, and challenges. We learn that Mariana, who uses a wheelchair for mobility, is an outgoing and affectionate young woman full of positive energy. She studies, cares for herself, dances, and goes out with her friends. She commutes to school and has learned to react calmly to the mean-spirited comments she receives, such as “Disabled people take too much space on the bus,” referring to her wheelchair. Vasco, meanwhile, emerges as a resourceful and entrepreneurial young man who wants to make a difference. He moved to Maputo from a rural area, learned shoemaking, and now earns a living from his craft. Victória has a mature and assertive attitude that celebrates her femininity and self-esteem. The film depicts Victória’s efforts to organize a fashion show for women with impairments that would highlight their feminine beauty, gifts, and qualities. The documentary also frankly recounts the prejudice she encountered when she was pregnant with her daughter: many people did not see her as a woman wishing to have a family. Instead, people routinely assumed that someone had taken advantage of her and left her when she became pregnant.
As the stories of Mariana, Vasco, and Victória unfold, the film reveals the cultural stereotypes concerning impairment and disability that prevail in wider Mozambican society. In line with the biomedical model, most appear to assume that those with impairments are somehow inferior and consequently they place such individuals in disempowering, dependent, and isolated positions.[3] A report written by two disabled people’s organizations in Mozambique highlights how such individuals are routinely treated with scorn, contempt, and rejection by their fellow citizens in public and private spaces.[4] Indeed, one of Mariana’s friends said that she was initially concerned with what people would think of her if she was seen with a friend in a wheelchair. Both Mariana and Vasco recounted situations in the documentary when they went shopping and were met with hostility by store employees who assumed they were beggars and asked them to leave. The report also suggests that individuals with impairments often suffer from low self-esteem and difficulty accepting their capacities as well as limitations. These realities prompt many to isolate themselves, which frequently leads to psychological disorders, such as, for example, an inferiority complex or a profound sense of resignation. In the film, Victória speaks openly about her initial insecurities about attending university, making a positive impression, and being accepted as an equal by her peers.
De Corpo e Alma also explores the importance of family support in the lives of the three young individuals. Steadfast family and caregiver moral and psychological encouragement seems to have positively affected the profiled youths’ opportunities in life and their attitudes toward their impairments. Mariana lives with her parents and her family encourages her to participate in social activities and live as full a life as possible. Vasco’s older brother invited him to come to Maputo from the countryside and helped him set up a stall to earn a living by repairing shoes and selling small items. That support was crucial for Vasco to live his life with dignity. Victória’s adopted mother gave her the best education she could afford, as well as consistent emotional support, and the film suggests that her daughter grew into a self-reliant woman.
While the documentary’s message is essentially hopeful and positive, its portrayal of young people with impairments could be criticized as an embrace of a common disability-related stereotype referred to as “the supercrip.” Several scholars have argued that, when not pitied, individuals with impairments are sometimes seen as “heroes,” admired for their courage, determination, and ability to triumph over physical, societal, and cultural barriers.[5] This view may stem from the belief that life with a disability must necessarily be unsatisfying, and as such, we must admire persons with disabilities for being able to live “the way they do.” While such portrayal may inspire people with and without impairments, it can also make some individuals with impairments feel they are not capable of accomplishing the same.
De Corpo e Alma has been featured at film festivals around the world, and based on the feedback Bron has received from audience members, it is clear that viewers have often become emotionally invested in the young people whose lives the documentary chronicles.[6] Ultimately, the film portrays the three protagonists as possessing complex personalities, depicts them as givers and receivers, and avoids presenting physical limitations as determining personality. In short, this documentary asks its audience to accept these individuals as fellow human beings and to accord each the dignity that status demands. The film is moving, evocative, and hope-filled.
Notes
[1]. See Bron’s interview on the Voz da América, October 18, 2014, http://www.voaportugues.com/content/mocambique-de-corpo-e-alma/2487290.html.
[2]. On his first encounter with Canda and initial interest in making the film, see an article written by staff of the journal Verdade, “Viver de corpo e alma,” Verdade (October 21, 2010), http://www.verdade.co.mz/vida-e-lazer/cultura/14833-viver-de-corpo-e-alma.
[3]. The biomedical model considers people with impairments as individuals with physical (or other) problems that need to be treated and presumably “fixed.” By locating the impairment problem with the person, the biomedical model views such individuals either as victims of their impairments or as having physical problems that must be healed. Although many physicians realize that many conditions cannot be “cured,” by choosing to “normalize” people with impairments, societal norms often echo the “medicalization of disability,” thereby endorsing dealing with the “problem” by tasking the medical establishment to “treat” the person rather than revisit social processes. See Simi Linton, Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity (New York: New York University Press, 1998).
[4]. RAVIM and Handicap International Mozambique, “People with Disabilities in the Suburban Areas of Maputo and Matola,” 2010, http://www.hiproweb.org/uploads/tx_hidrtdocs/Relatorio_GB_BD.pdf.
[5]. See, for example, Charles A. Riley II, Disability and the Media: Prescriptions for Change (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2005); Amit Kama, “Supercrips versus the Pitiful Handicapped: Reception of Disabling Images by Disabled Audience Members,” Communications 29 (2004): 447-466; and Natalie Martiniello, “The ‘Super-Crip’ Phenomenon,” in Disability in the Media (2009), http://www.trinimex.ca/disabilityinmedia/lesson6.htm.
[6]. See the videos capturing the reaction of the audience after watching the documentary, http://bodyandsoulmozambique.com.linux31.unoeuro-server.com/gallery/screening-dockanema/.
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at: https://networks.h-net.org/h-disability.
Citation:
Lyusyena Kirakosyan. Review of Bron, Matthieu, dir., Body and Soul (De Corpo e Alma).
H-Disability, H-Net Reviews.
October, 2015.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=44157
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. |