I just watched inside I’m Dancing. It’s been quite a week, in terms of my meeting with Alan and the episode with the school kids. The first thing to be said about Inside is that the acting is pisspoor; it actually caused great controversy in certain areas through it’s use of non-disabled actors to play cripples. I also feel that it oversimplifies certain things in parts, and makes other things too dramatic. For instance, they make the ILF guys appear like a parole board, although that may have been the point. Homes are rather like prisons. Ultimately, however, I found the film uplifting, and that it’s portrayal of disability both positive and realistic.

The ending kind of got to me though. I have lost a few good friends to muscular dystrophy; the first when I was ten or so, another age 18. it is the only disability I want cured, although they wouldn’t have been the boys I knew had they not had MD. It’s good to see such dramas being played out in film: the cinema is the one place where you are allowed, and even encouraged, to stare. If kids stared at films like this, perhaps they wouldn’t stare at me.