Poetic documentary and visual anthropology: representing intellectual disability on screen

Since the 1970s disability advocates have called for a more inclusive on-screen representation of intellectual disability. But despite these initiatives, broadcast media continues to resort to the stereotypical representations of triumph or tragedy. This research analyses recent representations of intellectual disability on screen and identifies a broadcast model of intellectual disability that still uses these stereotypes. In response to this model and informed by insights from visual anthropology, the studio research employs poetic documentary as a framework to produce videos for the Kew Cottages History Project and the What Next? documentary projects. It is argued that the poetic mode of documentary emphasises the sensual qualities of the image, evoking the lives of the subjects instead of speaking for them. The production methodology involved in the applied research has relevance to the role and purpose of video documentary in health and social research.