Bafta has been drawn into a bitter row with the organisers of a disability film festival after refusing to screen a documentary about a group of disabled artists touring America.
The film-maker behind The Last American Freak Show admits his road movie-style documentary featuring performers unafraid to flaunt their disability is challenging, but says he is furious with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for backing out of a decision to hold a joint screening. Matters were made worse when Bafta suggested screening a more mainstream American comedy about a mentally ill young man who falls in love with a blow-up doll. The feelgood film, Lars and the Real Girl, is directed by the non-disabled Craig Gillespie and stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Mortimer.
The row comes only two days before the academy's biggest event of the year, the Bafta film awards, when Hollywood stars will glam up for a red carpet ceremony at the Royal Opera House.
Organisers of X'08, the eighth London international disability film festival, had initially approached Bafta to use rooms at its Piccadilly headquarters to round off the four-day event, which begins next Thursday, with a best of the festival screening and gala dinner. According to festival co-director Peter Kinkead, Bafta then suggested making it a joint event.
Kinkead said Bafta wanted a proposal for a specific film screening. "I thought The Last American Freak Show was perfect. It's by a British disabled director who used his own finance. It's 90 minutes long. It's never been seen anywhere. It would be a world premiere."
The film, which is not yet completely finished, is perhaps not an easy watch. "Yes it's a bit raw, yes it's a bit in your face, yes there are some distasteful scenes, but nothing too bad," said Kinkead.
He said Corinna Downing, Bafta's head of events, had felt uncomfortable after watching it, and asked for a different film to be screened.
He said: "This film is about disabled people reclaiming their identity. They are proud to be freaks ... It's been terribly hard to find out exactly what the reason is. You wonder if it's about disabled people not behaving in the right way."
Kinkead said of the alternative film suggestion: "I was appalled. It's completely inappropriate. It makes fun of mental illness: that's appropriate?"
The film-maker, Richard Butchins, said he had spoken to Downing, who had told him the film was "too demanding ... inappropriate for this kind of event ... too explicit and created too many questions" and that the academy wanted "more easy fare for our members".
Downing was not available for comment yesterday, but Bafta said the film did not fit "agreed criteria". In a statement it said: "Bafta have simply not banned Mr Butchins' film as he suggests. Any comments were not a critique on Mr Butchins' work but against a pre-agreed criteria for the subject matter at a planned joint event, designed specifically to further the aims of the Disability Film Festival."
Kinkead said the festival would not take up the offer to screen the suggested alternative film. He said the Bafta decision had left him "just terribly disappointed and saddened". He added: "It's all such corporate-speak, all to cover up the fact that some people might object."
The film
Disabled film-maker Richard Butchins spent more than 10 weeks following six disabled and four able-bodied people who toured the US by bus as a carnival freakshow. The result is a road movie-style documentary, The Last American Freak Show. It follows the troupe as they perform in bars, small theatres and colleges. The group includes Erik the gentle giant, Dame Demur the dancing dwarf and Ken "Peg Leg". Judge for yourself at youtube.com/watch?v=rNneutOGVJ4