-----Original Message-----
From: Ragged Edge [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 17:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Ragged Edge E-Letter 1/19/2005


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THESE MOVIES ARE JUST KILLING US...
Million Dollar Baby has just brought Clint Eastwood a Golden Globe for
Best Director. The Sea Inside has brought Alejandro Amenábar a Golden
Globe for best foreign-language film. What links both movies? The
message that it's the kind thing to do to kill someone who's become a
quadriplegic. "A corny, melodramatic assault," says Not Dead Yet's Steve
Drake in his review of Eastwood's latest.
http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/reviews/drakemillionbaby.html

The Sea Inside opens with the sound of quadriplegic Ramon Sampedro
breathing. Jessica Yu's 1996 Academy Award winning Breathing Lessons
started the same way. Yu's film celebrated disability, says Art Blaser,
while The Sea Inside is "a seductive but socially irresponsible film of
what can only be called disability defamation."
http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/reviews/blaserseainside.html

Disability groups are starting to raise a stink about these movies. Not
Dead Yet activists are picketing and distributing protest leaflets at
this evening's Chicago Film Critics Association awards gala at the Union
League Club of Chicago (info at
http://www.notdeadyet.org/docs/bigotpr.html)  The National Spinal Cord
Injury Association has just issued a news release calling Baby "a
brilliantly executed attack on people with spinal cord injury." Check PR
Newswire  at
  http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/ to read the release.
Steve Drake offers suggestions as to what you can do to
protest the movie, too.
http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/reviews/drakemillionbaby.html#resp

Ragged Edge editor Mary Johnson wonders about the appearance
of two crip snuff films at the end of 2004, propping up what
is likely the most contentious public issue since abortion.
http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/mediacircus/killingkindly.html


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  DID YOU MISS?...
Cal Montgomery looks into what's happening for disabled
people in the regions hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami. Many
disabled people are part of the global effort to help
disabled and nondisabled people rebuild their lives, she reports. The
broader issue is emergency preparedness for disabled people. There's a
lot to do everywhere.
http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/focus/tsunami0105.html

William J. Peace reviews  Gary Karp's and Stan Klein's compilation of
stories from survivors of spinal cord injury, From There to Here.
http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/reviews/peacethereherekarp.html

YOUR NEXT E-LETTER will arrive Feb. 2, 2005.

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