Victoria filmmaker Cory Thibert says he never saw a family like his depicted on screen, which was the starting point for his debut narrative feature film, Mildlife.
“ Both of my parents live with cerebral palsy,” he said, “I’ve never seen that represented.”
Thibert spoke with People First Radio about the film, which had its Canadian premiere at the Victoria Film Festival this month, and about depicting disability.
Mildlife is set in Victoria and follows the story of protagonist Lawrence, played by Thibert. Like the filmmaker, Lawrence has two parents who live with cerebral palsy. The narrative revolves around him facing some of the big life decisions that can accompany young adulthood, such as considering a move to the mainland and trying to navigate personal, professional, and familial responsibilities.
“ I feel like there’s so many tropes with disability narratives and so many ways.characters with disabilities are either just overly inspirational just for existing or they are infantalized,” he said. “I wanted to show a really authentic experience.”
Thibert says there are 3 particularly common tropes he encounters related to depictions of people with disability on screen.
“One is that they need to overcome their disability in order to become normal or accepted by society. They need to be like overly exceptional, like Stephen Hawking or something,” he said.
“ The second one is that they need to find their own island of misfit toys, or like their own community – they can’t belong in ‘normal’ society.”
He says the third trope sees characters with disability die. Thibert says he was especially conscious of avoiding those tropes when making the film.
“Stripping all that away, I’m like, okay, who are my parents to me in my lived experience?” He said. “I’m like, they’re gonna be just as three dimensional as the girlfriend character, or the best friend character, or Lawrence himself. You know, they all are written with flaws that they can’t see themselves, but then later come to an arc where they can start working on that.”
Thibert said it was important for him to cast actors with cerebral palsy in the roles of the parents. They are played by Adam Grant Warren and Lianne Crowe.
Listen to the full interview above for more, including the years long journey of getting a locally set film to go from script to screen.
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