Event Details - American Studies Lecture

Peter Kunze presents:

Part of Your World?: Disney, Disability, and the Industrial Politics of Inclusion

This presentation considers the intersections of film history, media industry studies, and disability studies. How do Hollywood structures regulate the types of bodies – and therefore the types of creators – who can participate in media production? And how might these structures adapt to accommodate anomalous bodies to create more inclusive and accessible production contexts? In 1988, during the production of The Little Mermaid, lyricist and producer Howard Ashman was diagnosed HIV positive. Rather than firing him, the Walt Disney Company adapted the production culture of Beauty and the Beast to allow Ashman to rest and receive treatment in New York City. What emerged was an accommodating bicoastal production scenario: animators in California and Florida, and Ashman working in and from New York. Above-the-line folks would travel in-between to accommodate Ashman's treatment in NYC. Fax machines and recordings facilitated the rest. This adapted production reveals Disney's willingness (and self-interest) in accommodating Ashman during the HIV/AIDS crisis as well as Disney's behind-the-scenes support of LGBT employees countering public reticence to address HIV/AIDS or even LGBT issues. (This shifts a bit in the mid-90s when Eisner/Disney starts offering partner benefits to entice hires.) It also reveals how structures can enable “disabled” creators, but that such adaptations are political: privileged, limited, temporary. Therefore, I draw upon archival research, oral histories, and textual analysis to demonstrate how disability studies might lead to a reassessment and reorientation within both media industry studies and film history, one that considers embodiment, affect, and lived experience as central to how media is produced.