Isolated beginnings spur personal triumphs
Artists’ powerful tales of awakening and success leave disabilities behind
They were underestimated, overlooked and shoved to the sidelines, and yet these artists have become loud and legendary voices in their own fields. Three works opening in Toronto tell the true stories of artists whose disabilities informed their unique artistic visions.
Maudie: The warm and funny biopic of Nova Scotian artist Maud Lewis, opening April 14, doesn’t fuss over the folk painter’s disability. The juvenile rheumatoid arthritis she had as a child worsened in her adult years, and ultimately the pain forced the folk painter to hold one brush with two hands.
“People that live with disability, they get on in the best ways as they can with whatever they do,” says Maudie director Aisling Walsh of her choice not to make Maudiea diseaseof-the-week tear-jerker.
“That’s part of her, (but) we’re not looking at the film thinking this is a disabled (woman). That was a part of her life and she lived her life with that disability, as a lot of people do.”
Though she never left her native Nova Scotia, her work has become internationally prized, selling for as much as $22,680. Lewis, played in the film by Blue Jasmine scene- stealer Sally Hawkins, lived with her hus- band Everett (Ethan Hawke) in a one-room cottage, a modest life that Walsh believes was adopted after a childhood in which young Maud was homeschooled to protect her from the cruelty of her classmates.
“That 12-by-12 foot shack became such a safe haven for her in a way,” Walsh says.
Decorated with her brightly coloured paintings of animals and na- ture, the home is now part of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s permanent display in Halifax, which means Lewis’s home has travelled farther than the artist ever did herself. Still Tomorrow: Chinese poet Yu Xiuhua lived a lonely life in the small village of Hengdian, locked in a loveless 20-year marriage, until she unexpectedly found fame online as a poet. Her most famous work “Cross Half of China To Sleep With You” was shared a million times on China’s WeChat social media.
Still Tomorrow, opening Apr. 29 as part of the Hot Docs Film Festival, chronicles the empowering awakening that followed her literary success.
Xiuhua has cerebral palsy, which her mother admits is why she pushed her into an arranged marriage when she was 19.
In the documentary, Xiuhua contemplates divorcing her husband, saying that, despite her literary success, “if a woman can’t find love, she is a failure.”
“Her world is changing,” says director Jian Fan.
“Her friend circle is different. She came to big cities, she came to universities. Little by little, she got confidence.” Wildfire: When Order of Canadarecipient Judith Thompson was developing the play Rare, based on conversations with nine actors with Down syndrome, she asked actress Krystal Hope Nausbaum what she hoped for.
“I want to have a boyfriend that doesn’t have Down syndrome,” she said.
“It was awkward in some ways,” Thompson says. “But in other ways, it opened up something else. Another conversation. The theatre I like is about grey areas. No easy answers.”
The cast of Rare is now reteaming for Wildfire, opening May 2, which explores the romantic frustrations of people with Down syndrome. The finished script quotes directly from conversations with the cast.
“I would say, ‘What does it feel like to you if you are heartbroken?’ ” Thompson says.
“Nick (Nicholas Herd) said, ‘Someone stomping on your heart.’ Andreas (Prinz) said, ‘My heart is like an empty house.’ It’s gorgeous. It’s Emily Dickinson.”
Through their collaboration with Thompson, the cast is also seizing political ground. The script evokes the dark history of Orillia’s Huronia Regional Centre, an institution for the developmentally disabled that was infamous for its human rights abuse.
“They turned people into zombies,” actor Dylan Harman says.
“This play is about fighting back and defending our rights,” Herd says.
“Each of us here is unique and different and that is OK to celebrate. Blending our culture with other people’s culture and celebrate it all together, like a tree spreading out.”