On Screen/In Person in partnership with the MU Disability Film Series presents “I Didn’t See You There”. Spurred by the spectacle of a circus tent that goes up outside his Oakland, California apartment, disabled filmmaker Reid Davenport joins us for a Q&A about the film with “launches into an unflinching meditation on spectacle, (in)visibility, and the corrosive legacy of the freak show.” The evening begins at 6:15 P.M. with a panel discussion, screening of the 90-minute film at 7 P.M., and is followed by an in-person Q&A session with Davenport. This event will be held in Steinman Hall at the Ware Center, 42 N. Prince Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Admission is free and the events are open to the public.
Panelists in the community discussion will include Jaclyn Nagle, Executive Director of the Disability Empowerment Center; Blue Guckert, Millersville student, President MUADAPT; Dr. Jessica Hughes, Assistant Professor in Communication & Disability Studies, MU; and Dr. Marco Di Giulio, Associate Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature, Franklin & Marshall College.
I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE
As a visibly disabled person, filmmaker Reid Davenport sets out to make a film about how he sees the world, from either his wheelchair or his two feet, without having to be seen himself. The unexpected arrival of a circus tent outside his apartment in Oakland, CA leads him to consider the history and legacy of P.T. Barnum’s Freak Show and its lingering presence in his daily life in the form of gawking, lack of access, and other forms of ableism. Informed by his position in space, lower to the ground, Davenport captures indelible images, often abstracted into shapes and patterns separate from their meaning. But the circus tent looms in the background, and is reverberated by tangible on-screen interruptions, from unsolicited offers of help to careless blocking of ramps. Personal and unflinching, I Didn’t See You There forces the viewer to confront the spectacle and invisibility of disability. Offering both a perspective and stylistic approach that are rarely seen, Reid brings an urgently needed storytelling eye to filmmaking with a documentary that is powerful and emotional, thoughtful and raw, intimate and political.
As a visibly disabled person, filmmaker Reid Davenport sets out to make a film about how he sees the world, from either his wheelchair or his two feet, without having to be seen himself. The unexpected arrival of a circus tent outside his apartment in Oakland, CA leads him to consider the history and legacy of P.T. Barnum’s Freak Show and its lingering presence in his daily life in the form of gawking, lack of access, and other forms of ableism. Informed by his position in space, lower to the ground, Davenport captures indelible images, often abstracted into shapes and patterns separate from their meaning. But the circus tent looms in the background, and is reverberated by tangible on-screen interruptions, from unsolicited offers of help to careless blocking of ramps. Personal and unflinching, I Didn’t See You There forces the viewer to confront the spectacle and invisibility of disability. Offering both a perspective and stylistic approach that are rarely seen, Reid brings an urgently needed storytelling eye to filmmaking with a documentary that is powerful and emotional, thoughtful and raw, intimate and political.
