Not to mention that the people who invested in the movie deserve to be paid for their work.

It’s a shame that the movie had so little distribution. I’ve talked to many people who said that they would have gone to see it, but couldn’t find it anywhere, and so resorted to downloading it because they were extremely interested in it and it was the only way they could view it. When and if the DVD comes out I will post purchase information on this site.

I have also watched it once, and am letting things percolate a bit, before I watch it again. As Fiona says, there is a LOT to that movie that needs to be analysed and considered. Some good, some not so good.

It would be good if this gets a wider showing in mainstream cinemas rather than just the art houses showing indies to film afficionados only. It sounds like the DVD is only going to be available in Region 1 formatting, which would be a shame for those of us in UK/Europe etc.

As a writer I constantly go around and do my own research on matters and form my own opinions and assumptions and use them for my advantage as I want in my stories. If every author or screenwriter had to follow rules and allow people to tell him what he could express and couldn’t and how he could do this or that, quiet simply, a story or movie would never be produced. Stories and movies are written threw the mind or the eyes of the author. Each character and scene is a little spark of emanation inside the author’s head. If the author were to have to deal with the stress of allowing a group of people to come in and start taking over his story and changing it all around to how he liked it to be then he would quickly lose interest in the story and would not finish it, much like I have done with some of my stories in the past.

I can understand why on a community basis we need and want this movie and story to tell a truthful depiction of our true selves and how we feel, but sometimes that doesn’t always happen and even if it did, I think that it wouldn’t make for a great story. I know if I were writing a story like this, I would most certainly do all of my own research on the matter to come up with a character and a scenario I liked and that played with my story. I probably would contact at least one individual who felt the way we do to try and base things off her and to try and understand her fully, but I don’t believe I would let her completely control my work.

As for wither we concern ourselves with how we look when we are out in our wheelchairs and such. I will admit that I feel that way; I constantly check my sitting position to make sure I still look the way that I like to look. I make sure my feet are both side-by-side perfectly positioned on the footplate, I make sure I am sitting correctly in the seat and not slouched over. As I have mentioned before, I am attracted to the devices more than I am the actual disability. I have come to understand that people with BIID are more attracted to the disability…with that in mind I believe that one would most certainly be concerned with the way they displayed themselves, I would somewhat think you would have to be in order to be a pretender. I mean sure, you don’t have to be abscessed with it, as I am not with the way I look either, but I would think it would be something that would be in your mind to make sure that you didn’t move your legs incorrectly and that you did everything as the people you are trying to be would do. For myself, I am a pretender and I am not scared of that, I am happy as a pretender and I don’t worry about people discovering that I am not disabled because I don’t claim to be. The only reason I am concerned about how I look in my chair is because I want to look attractive, I want to look good and pleasing, I want to look like the person I feel inside.

If this story was based on anyone in particular, I am sure the author respects that person for who they are. He might have tweaked them a little to better fit his story, but I feel that he probably had a feeling for her if he cared enough about her to use her in his story. If he didn’t use anyone, well, then is it possible for a moment to think that maybe the author made a character of himself? Possibly, maybe, deep inside himself he felt like he did, but was just too scared to ever present it? I know in my stories I write a lot about things that frankly scare me in real life, but yet in my stories I find it so easy to talk about them and dream about them so vividly.

Even though I have not seen this movie yet and I don’t know how they really depict us, I honestly feel that I am glad they are making these movies and that Newsweek wrote that article and that more and more we are showing up in tv shows and radio shows even if we are displayed wrongly and called names and judged wrongly and harshly…why am I glad that this is happening? Because finally we are being recognized and getting out there. Sure we are not understood, but at least people are starting to realize we exist, that’s the first step. Once people know we exist, sure they are going to have questions and wonder what we are all about and they are doing to make false assumptions based on the lies they are fed by propagandist, but then it’s up to us to meet these people who now know we exist and to show them the truth behind us and to educate them. There are so many things in life that are just like this. One person finds something new that is widely unknown and it offends them in a small way so they react angrily and make up all sorts of roderick about it and tell everyone they come in contact with. Then eventually the group of people gets up and educates the masses and soon that group becomes a well established, large, respected and accepted part of the world. In order to get the acceptance we so strongly desire we have to go threw the hard ships and pain. Yes it hurts and it hurts very bad, but nothing in this world has ever come easily, everything has been fought for.

Obviously, it’s impossible to fit EVERYTHING into a film or novel or whatever, but I’m curious — what sort of things, in your opinion, absolutely MUST be included in a fictional work about BIID?

I’m considering producing an amateur (ultra low-budget) film about BIID, and after seeing the reception for this one, I really want to try to get it right.