Below is an article that appeared in the local Springfield paper about The Albino Farm movie. After reading it, I was left shaking my head. As a person with albinism, there are a lot of things I wish had been included, made a bit clearer etc. but as a reporter I know how incredibly hard it is to delve into a subject you likely know little if anything about and churn out something useful in typically just a few hours. And hey, articles that appear in print have space limitations. I’m just happy the issue got covered at all.
I was shaking my head, however, at the response of the movie’s producers. They don’t get it.
Those that know me best know that I’m not exactly a stickler for political correctness. I’m more concerned about what people mean by the words they choose rather than the words themselves. On the “albino” issue, I won’t slap someone down for calling me “an albino” unless in context they mean it as an insult. Then, it’s “on” if you know what I mean. I prefer “person with albinism” because it’s more polite. It makes an effort to put my personhood first – but let’s face it – not everyone is thinking that way all the time. Sometimes people just do the best they can and you’ve got to learn when to use the moment as an educational opportunity, and when to just let something roll off your back.
So, my gripe with the movie isn’t that the word “albino” is used – my gripe is how it is used.
The producers seem to believe that because, apparently, the characters don’t really have albinism, that it’s all okay. Their logic mystifies me. The reality is many people with albinism have been harmed by stereotypes about people with albinism being evil for hundreds of years. So, to put the word “albino” in the name of a horror film as the name of a place where a bunch of “genetic muntants” reside is offensive. Plain and simple.
Even the movie’s Web site is offensive – the scary music, creaky gate, and big scary red letters “The Albino Farm” as the legend rolls by, just before some monster with an axe jumps out.
The general public doesn’t know much about albinism. Do they really think that the average Joe is going to think that the film has nothing to do with albinism with current title? Even the paper’s copy editors made the leap calling the article “Movie on albinism….” They didn’t say “Horror flick has town buzzing.”
If the term is so inconsequential to the movie’s story line, then why not just remove the word? Do the film’s creators really lack that much creativity? Come on – they make horror movies. Surely they’ve got enough imagination to hit the back space six times and use something else.
In the article it says:
Stewart, calling from his Santa Monica, Calif., home, says that the reason the filmmakers wanted to use the title "The Albino Farm" is to draw attention to the movie — not to exploit people with albinism. "The only reference we had is from the legend. The legend is all over the place: Everyone knows the albino farm. Everyone in the Springfield area hears the name and gets excited about it."
The problem, Mr. Stewart, is that you can’t have it both ways. By using the term “Albino” in your title to “draw attention to the movie” you are, in fact, exploiting people with albinism and all of those scary “evil albino” legends that dog us. It might not have been intentional in the beginning – but the cat’s out of the bag – now you know.
As for relating the film back to the legend, the legend is a local one. Surely even low budget films have dreams of grossing millions? Any traction they’d really get out of this title is regional. The price is perpetuating yet another story of “evil albinos.”
Jason Lillard, the college student interviewed, clearly doesn’t share my opinion, or my experiences as a person with albinism. That’s okay. We’ve all got opinions, and I’m glad for him that he was spared the taunts I grew up with – being called a “devil” because my eyes look red in the light, or ghost, or other such things.
Hey, it’s a low budget film and with any luck it will stay regional and have a minimum impact. But, if the film’s producers have any ambitions about national, even international fame and glory, then they ought to know we all don’t have Jason’s life.
A friend of mine, for example, went to a school for the blind in Southern Africa last year. There were, of course, a number of children there with albinism. The nurses, caregivers and teachers wouldn’t touch the children with albinism because they feared them as “evil spirits.”
But all of this aside, it’s just rude. If the title involved any other group of people, no one would tolerate it. It got this far, probably because no one really thought about there being actual people with albinism – and that is, after all, the point. We’re people. Not mutants. Not monsters. People.
The film’s producers still have time to do the decent thing. Don’t miss the opportunity to show some compassion.
I was shaking my head, however, at the response of the movie’s producers. They don’t get it.
Those that know me best know that I’m not exactly a stickler for political correctness. I’m more concerned about what people mean by the words they choose rather than the words themselves. On the “albino” issue, I won’t slap someone down for calling me “an albino” unless in context they mean it as an insult. Then, it’s “on” if you know what I mean. I prefer “person with albinism” because it’s more polite. It makes an effort to put my personhood first – but let’s face it – not everyone is thinking that way all the time. Sometimes people just do the best they can and you’ve got to learn when to use the moment as an educational opportunity, and when to just let something roll off your back.
So, my gripe with the movie isn’t that the word “albino” is used – my gripe is how it is used.
The producers seem to believe that because, apparently, the characters don’t really have albinism, that it’s all okay. Their logic mystifies me. The reality is many people with albinism have been harmed by stereotypes about people with albinism being evil for hundreds of years. So, to put the word “albino” in the name of a horror film as the name of a place where a bunch of “genetic muntants” reside is offensive. Plain and simple.
Even the movie’s Web site is offensive – the scary music, creaky gate, and big scary red letters “The Albino Farm” as the legend rolls by, just before some monster with an axe jumps out.
The general public doesn’t know much about albinism. Do they really think that the average Joe is going to think that the film has nothing to do with albinism with current title? Even the paper’s copy editors made the leap calling the article “Movie on albinism….” They didn’t say “Horror flick has town buzzing.”
If the term is so inconsequential to the movie’s story line, then why not just remove the word? Do the film’s creators really lack that much creativity? Come on – they make horror movies. Surely they’ve got enough imagination to hit the back space six times and use something else.
In the article it says:
Stewart, calling from his Santa Monica, Calif., home, says that the reason the filmmakers wanted to use the title "The Albino Farm" is to draw attention to the movie — not to exploit people with albinism. "The only reference we had is from the legend. The legend is all over the place: Everyone knows the albino farm. Everyone in the Springfield area hears the name and gets excited about it."
The problem, Mr. Stewart, is that you can’t have it both ways. By using the term “Albino” in your title to “draw attention to the movie” you are, in fact, exploiting people with albinism and all of those scary “evil albino” legends that dog us. It might not have been intentional in the beginning – but the cat’s out of the bag – now you know.
As for relating the film back to the legend, the legend is a local one. Surely even low budget films have dreams of grossing millions? Any traction they’d really get out of this title is regional. The price is perpetuating yet another story of “evil albinos.”
Jason Lillard, the college student interviewed, clearly doesn’t share my opinion, or my experiences as a person with albinism. That’s okay. We’ve all got opinions, and I’m glad for him that he was spared the taunts I grew up with – being called a “devil” because my eyes look red in the light, or ghost, or other such things.
Hey, it’s a low budget film and with any luck it will stay regional and have a minimum impact. But, if the film’s producers have any ambitions about national, even international fame and glory, then they ought to know we all don’t have Jason’s life.
A friend of mine, for example, went to a school for the blind in Southern Africa last year. There were, of course, a number of children there with albinism. The nurses, caregivers and teachers wouldn’t touch the children with albinism because they feared them as “evil spirits.”
But all of this aside, it’s just rude. If the title involved any other group of people, no one would tolerate it. It got this far, probably because no one really thought about there being actual people with albinism – and that is, after all, the point. We’re people. Not mutants. Not monsters. People.
The film’s producers still have time to do the decent thing. Don’t miss the opportunity to show some compassion.
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