About the Film
Synopsis
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT is a half-hour documentary about a renegade Jerry's Kid named Mike Ervin. A Muscular Dystrophy Association poster child in the 1960s, today Mike is an outspoken disability rights activist who challenges the MDA's representation of people with disabilities in its Labor Day telethon through his activist group, Jerry's Orphans.
Background
Charities have used poster children to raise money since the 1930s because it works.
People see a child with leg braces and crutches; they feel sorry and drop a coin in
the jar or call in the pledge. But once the fundraising drive is over, that image of
the poor little poster child lingers. The general public absorbs the idea that people
with muscular dystrophy, or polio--really all people with disabilities--are pitiable
victims who want and need nothing more than a big charity to take care of or cure
them. Mike calls this the charity mentality.
While the Jerry Lewis telethon may seem like a quaint relic to younger viewers, the
reality is that both the charity mentality and the
MDA's use of the pity approach
to raise money seriously undermine the disability civil rights movement. The
telethon routinely implies that the source of the problems people with disabilities
face is their medical conditions and the answer to their problems is curing them.
Millions of viewers tune in every year and come away with the idea that people with
disabilities need pity and charity rather than accessible public transportation and
housing, employment opportunities and other civil rights that a democratic society
should ensure for all its citizens.
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT documents the history of Jerry's Orphans and three consecutive years of their local Chicago Telethon protests. The film contrasts outdated attitudes with a view into the real lives of people with disabilities today. The goal of THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT is to raise consciousness about the subtle effects of pity, to empower people with disabilities to advocate for their own rights, and to inspire activism.
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