ABSTRACT
In 2006 I was invited to work with the Royal London Hospital Archives and Museum to create a new film that would draw on the institution's rich history and collections to offer visitors and viewers new ways of seeing disabled people and thinking about disability. 1 As I immersed myself in the archives and talked with museum staff, ideas for the film gradually took shape. I wanted to make a film that would be viewed and would resonate far beyond the walls of the Royal London Hospital Museum, a film that entered into the huge discourse surrounding the hospital's most famous resident, Joseph Merrick (more widely known as ‘The Elephant Man’), a film that entered into even bigger discourses of diversity and difference and was therefore able to be viewed — and to be meaningful — across time, platform and country. In other words, I wanted to make a film specific to one place and one person and yet to tell universal stories about difference, image, history and how people need to be seen as they see themselves — which is what Merrick wanted, which is what we all want. The film, Behind the Shadow of Merrick (Plate 6.1), was completed in 2008. 2 This chapter explores the aims and intentions that shaped the film and reflects on the interpretive and filmic devices deployed to prompt viewers to see disability in new ways.
