Shameless Documentary

The documentary Shameless: The Art of Disability presents five friends who each have a different disability. They support each other through life and when completing a project for a summer festival. Bonnie, a film producer, interviews each friend about his or her life, strengths, and disability. Each person who was interviewed brought about a different point of view.
The first friend to be interviewed was David, who is a comedian and can portray many different characters. He is a funny and light-hearted man who met a woman in acting class, and fell in love. While watching his interview I was reminded of when I took a disability in the cinema class while attending Loras. In the early years of cinema many protagonists were portrayed as a person with a disability. This then stemmed to society where people with disabilities were viewed negatively. Although David can portray a scary character when he is performing on stage, he is in fact the complete opposite.
Bonnie was the second story to be shared on the documentary. She is an accomplished video producer who suffered two strokes while on vacation in Vermont with family and needed radical brain surgery in order to keep living. She is the creator of Shameless and has a family who
A quiet, reserved man, Geoff is an accomplished dancer who choreographed a piece for the summer festival that the group of friends attended. He was awarded the “Courage to Come Back” award, which brought forward a lot of questions and assumptions. Such as: Why shouldn’t of he come back? Was it assumed that after his accident he wouldn’t have the same dedication to dance? Just because someone goes through a life-changing event, doesn’t mean they would lose all love for something they once were passionate about. This is a common theme in the documentary. Love exists. In Geoff’s case it is not physical love like the others in the documentary, but emotional love for his