Abstract
Our perceptions of the social world are guided by categorical (i.e. stereotypical) thinking based on preexisting schematic knowledge, which frames filmmaking as well as viewing practices. This chapter outlines how folk-psychological mechanisms, as manifested in films and filmmaking textbooks, potentially result in the construction and perpetuation of social stereotypes that are detrimental to certain communities such as disabled people. This knowledge is then deployed in my own film practice to reduce or reconfigure disability stereotypes, particularly using the strategy of narrative fragmentation, which prevents the formation of schematic characters and plots.
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Notes
- 1.
For a detailed account of how folk psychology operates both in real life and in film, see Per Persson (2003, pp. 161–246).
- 2.
This selection of titles is only indicative and is based on their recurrence on the reading lists of undergraduate and postgraduate documentary practice courses, as well as being frequently recommended within the wider documentary filmmaking community.
- 3.
Seung-jun Yi’s Planet of Snail (2011) is a rare example of a documentary about a blind character that also uses narrative fragmentation, resulting in a multilayered practical identity portrayal. The main character is portrayed as a poet, a theatre actor, a deaf–blind man, and a loving husband and good-humored partner.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Carl Plantinga, Torben Grodal and Mette Kramer for their valuable feedback during early drafts of this chapter.
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Brylla, C. (2018). A Social Cognition Approach to Stereotyping in Documentary Practice. In: Brylla, C., Kramer, M. (eds) Cognitive Theory and Documentary Film. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90332-3_15
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