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Okay. Let's livestream the film Music.
Full disclosure: last month I was part of a team @Communica1st assembled to watch and advise Sia on this film (said advice seems ri have been ignored). I agreed to remain silent until today -- but I am not coming at this cold.
Full disclosure: last month I was part of a team @Communica1st assembled to watch and advise Sia on this film (said advice seems ri have been ignored). I agreed to remain silent until today -- but I am not coming at this cold.
I expect this livestream to deal with a great many unpleasant and possibly triggering issues by the way, so please use caution.
We open with a teenager in bra, panties, and headphones putting on pants, grunting and stimming pretty hard, hands against legs. Then we cut to the opening number with a dance number. In a yellow room, the girl dances to "In my mind, my body does not control me...."
I will cut them some slack here because this character is unlikely to have encountered it and many do not subscribe to it, but back in the 1970's disabled people founding a disability studies movement rejected the idea that the problem to be fought is our bodies and embraced ...
... the idea that the problem is societal limits on those bodies. (This was a sociopolitical model which took no account of impairment, or limitation of body or mind, and focused solely on disability, defined as social disadvantage imposed by society.)
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/library/UPIAS-fundamental-principles.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjVx6vijeTuAhVCXM0KHWleBXYQFjADegQIJBAB&usg=AOvVaw0NS9uYkUaQb8saGVOmrHn0
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/library/UPIAS-fundamental-principles.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjVx6vijeTuAhVCXM0KHWleBXYQFjADegQIJBAB&usg=AOvVaw0NS9uYkUaQb8saGVOmrHn0
The girl wakes and dresses all in white with teal headphones and a white MP3 player. I imagine this is meant to make her look saintly? But it reminds me of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," a film that notably humanized characters often treated as beyond common humanity.
In the kitchen an older woman prepares eggs ("Make you eggs" says the girl): two fried eggs as eyes with a ketchup smile below. Then she braids her hair while chatting about trivia, and snaps a fanny pack on her. "I love you" says the woman as the girl leaves the apartment.
As she walks along the city street, 2 men whose accents don't sound American stop to greet her; the second is running a newsstand and gives her 10 pages ripped from a magazine with dogs on them. A woman hands her a slice of watermelon on a stick.
She goes to the library and happily pulls out a book which she turns to a page -- mostly text -- about dogs.
I describe the sequence in detail because of this: there are seeds of something here that could have been great:
I describe the sequence in detail because of this: there are seeds of something here that could have been great:
A functionally non-speaking autistic child with some communicative echolalia, lovingly cared for at home and by community members who look for/look out for her, who has some ability to travel unassisted, pursuing a special interest, and with at least interest in literacy.
Sia and Maddie Ziegler have established the roots to a happy self-directed life with a significant communication system and with integration into the community.
This could have been a film about the girl and full of the possibility now available.
Spoiler alert: it's not.
This could have been a film about the girl and full of the possibility now available.
Spoiler alert: it's not.
As Music (that will turn out to be the girl's name) leaves the library, she sees birds fly away from her apartment building and she grows serious. Uh, oh. Are they taking her grandmother's soul with them?
And yes: as Music returns home we see Grandmother feel ill and collapse.
And yes: as Music returns home we see Grandmother feel ill and collapse.
A third man tells Music he will be up to do repairs, then calls out to the newsstand man, "Thanks, Felix, got it covered from here!"
Music finds the body. The third man follows her in and calls 911. The first man salutes the body as it leaves.
A policeman asks about family.
Music finds the body. The third man follows her in and calls 911. The first man salutes the body as it leaves.
A policeman asks about family.
A woman sleeping through AA gets a call that her grandmother has died. ("It's fine.") Then she asks about sobriety chips and takes one off someone else at the meeting.
AA woman happily bursts into the apartment and says hi to an unimpressed George (whose apartment she broke into while drunk and high 5 months ago). She shows him her chip. He hands her papers and heads out.
She pulls off Music's headphones to some distress and says she's Zu.
She pulls off Music's headphones to some distress and says she's Zu.
"Go to bed," says Music and does that.
Zu tries to pawn Music off on mental services, and they are not interested.
Worse, Grandma has left a note saying all Music has is Zu.
Now let's talk about that.
Zu tries to pawn Music off on mental services, and they are not interested.
Worse, Grandma has left a note saying all Music has is Zu.
Now let's talk about that.
Certainly disability services in the U.S. are inadequate. But Music has the right to a free and appropriate public education, which, while hardly a guarantee of quality, comes with some services and supports.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individuals_with_Disabilities_Education_Act
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individuals_with_Disabilities_Education_Act
Both Music and her grandmother also pretty much have to be on Medicaid, which would get her medical care. And Music is likely receiving SSI, a pitifully small sum to help with her expenses.
https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/
https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/
Moreover, as previously mentioned, she has community support: at least George, Felix, the third man, whom we will call Ebo because that will turn out to be his name, and the woman.
Also an array of social services should be descending to check.
Also an array of social services should be descending to check.
Families of disabled Americans are frequently overburdened and pushed into working long unpaid hours to support and advocate for their disabled loved ones -- but the myth of rugged individualism, that they are all on their own, is not true.
In 1969 the TV show "Marcus Welty, MD" did an autism episode: a family has an autistic son who uses echolalia and is hard to understand. At 5 or 6 he gets a new baby sister and Welby becomes aware of them.
The parents have been offered only two options: institutionalization in a facility for people with intellectual disabilities or deal with it themselves. (California actually is the state Geraldo Rivera used as a model of community supports in contrast to ...
... the horrors of Willowbrook 2 years later, but whatever. It is at least true that in 1969 the public schools were still free to reject the child.) As the parents debate institutionalizing the boy, who self-injures, ...
... Welby learns rudimentary applied behaviour analysis and trains the child with rewards and punishments to the point that a segregated school will take him. It's not an episode that would stand up today, but 1969 was a different time. Those families were much more alone.
Contrast that with the 1979 autism episode of "The White Shadow," in which an autistic basketball player tries being mainstreamed at Carver. His right to an education has only recently been established, the supports aren't there for him, and he returns to his segregated school.
But a lot has changed in 40 or 50 years.
And Zu is not even close to all Music has. Today she even has an uninstitutionalized autistic community waiting to welcome her when she finds them.
And Zu is not even close to all Music has. Today she even has an uninstitutionalized autistic community waiting to welcome her when she finds them.
Oh, look, another dance sequence. "I'm drownin', I'm drowning." This one features some sort of mop creature dancing with Music? Let's concede that I am not qualified to understand these.
Music wakes up Zu with requests to "Make you eggs" and "Braid your hair," and melts down, crying out and hitting herself, when Zu doesn't follow the routine.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DFhUDyarzqXE&ved=2ahUKEwiny9eCnOTuAhXWW80KHZJ6AH0QwqsBMAB6BAgBEAg&usg=AOvVaw1Hyi-oUzVsP_r-Jsd7enKM
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DFhUDyarzqXE&ved=2ahUKEwiny9eCnOTuAhXWW80KHZJ6AH0QwqsBMAB6BAgBEAg&usg=AOvVaw1Hyi-oUzVsP_r-Jsd7enKM
Ebo bursts in and announces he is Music's friend and will make her feel safe. He picks her up, puts her down on the floor and lies on top of her, holding her in supine (face up) restraint, claiming he is "crushing her with his love."
She settles down and he braids her hair.
She settles down and he braids her hair.
Ebo appears well-intentioned and caring, but restraint does not make people feel safe, and it can kill.
Ebo discloses that his brother in Ghana "was the same way" and "liked to be held." But this isn't a hug.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DFhUDyarzqXE&ved=2ahUKEwiny9eCnOTuAhXWW80KHZJ6AH0QwqsBMAB6BAgBEAg&usg=AOvVaw1Hyi-oUzVsP_r-Jsd7enKM
Ebo discloses that his brother in Ghana "was the same way" and "liked to be held." But this isn't a hug.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DFhUDyarzqXE&ved=2ahUKEwiny9eCnOTuAhXWW80KHZJ6AH0QwqsBMAB6BAgBEAg&usg=AOvVaw1Hyi-oUzVsP_r-Jsd7enKM
We had urged that Sia remove the restraint scenes from the film because of their potential to suggest very dangerous practices and she indicated she would, but later removed the tweet instead.
Ebo and Sia bond.
Felix goes to work at his verbally abusive adoptive father's dry cleaning business.
Okay. I am taking a break. Here's a palate cleanser: Wawa's "Faceless Man," about the pain of a child left by a loving parent with an unreliable caregiver he is unable to communicate with. In English and ASL, with the words on the screen.
Well, I appear to have crashed the video player so while I get that up and running again here's what you can do to get involved in efforts to support people like Music. Get to know, and if you can donate to:
@Communica1st : https://communicationfirst.org/
@Communica1st : https://communicationfirst.org/
Get to know, and buy cool merchandise from, @endseclusion : https://endseclusion.org/
Get to know, and if you can, donate to, @autselfadvocacy : https://autisticadvocacy.org/
And get to know, and if you can, donate to @awnnetwork_ : https://awnnetwork.org/
The next day, Zu goes to work, where her boss tries to be supportive about Grandma's death.
And what does Zu do? She works for a drug dealer. Who, despite the fact that she can't pay for the drugs he already fronted her, gives her more.
And what does Zu do? She works for a drug dealer. Who, despite the fact that she can't pay for the drugs he already fronted her, gives her more.
Her first sale is to a woman resentfully serving as caregiver to her mother and who wants Zu to sell to her friend.
Meanwhile Ebo is trying to get access to medication he needs.
And now we get to the alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) section.
Meanwhile Ebo is trying to get access to medication he needs.
And now we get to the alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) section.
AAC is for people who cannot reliably use speech. I am currently a part-time AAC user; for 17 years as an adult I was a full-timer.
I started with AAC before the turn of the century, using things like photocopied pages and eventually an AlphaSmart.
I started with AAC before the turn of the century, using things like photocopied pages and eventually an AlphaSmart.
Since then, tablets with robust AAC apps (ones with potentially unlimited communicative power) have become readily available and vastly more nonspeaking people have developed the ability to engage in complex language-based communication than ever were before.
Ebo brings Music a tablet with some kind of AAC app. If you go back to the start of the film, the section that was all promise, you can see why Music is a really obvious candidate for AAC. And in fact she masters this app in seconds. This is because it's not robust.
Now, realistically her school should already have been providing her with robust AAC; and given her strengths she should have already gotten pretty far into it. But in keeping with the film's insistence that Zu is all alone and Sia's insistence that ...
... Music's "functioning level" (which is not an accurate term) prevents her from communicating (Music is already communicating) -- by the way, have you noticed that social services still hasn't showed up to check on a child whose guardian has died? -- there is no AAC here.
So Ebo gives her one, which seemingly allows her only to say "I am happy" and "I am sad."
There is so much more to say.
There is so much more to say.
Oh, and "I am scared." Things like that.
In other words, sentences are already preprogrammed in (a robust system permits users to build sentences for more communicative power). https://montgomerycal.wordpress.com/2019/12/28/on-the-limits-tacitly-imposed-by-communication-systems/
In other words, sentences are already preprogrammed in (a robust system permits users to build sentences for more communicative power). https://montgomerycal.wordpress.com/2019/12/28/on-the-limits-tacitly-imposed-by-communication-systems/
Zu, Ebo, and Music play with water and this segues into a dance sequence with hoses squashed against the dancers' chests and occasionally squirting. It reminds me of when I was institutionalized and chemically restrained with drugs that caused lactation. Probably not the intent.
Ebo introduces the sisters to the boxing gym where he works. Oh, look, there's Felix! By now Ebo seems to have lost all interest in Music and is focusing on Zu.
In the park Ebo explains that Music can't change.
In the park Ebo explains that Music can't change.
Here's the second prone restraint scene: Ebo has Zu do it because a Black man in public restraining a white girl would... not be good.
I know this was filmed before 2020 but is really jarring to see Leslie Odom, Jr., promoting one of the means by which cops kill Black ppl.
I know this was filmed before 2020 but is really jarring to see Leslie Odom, Jr., promoting one of the means by which cops kill Black ppl.
Zu restrains Music prone, or face down. Prone restraint is especially dangerous because it can suppress breathing, and consequently it is illegal in at least 30 states. This is an act of violence.
Here is an account of my experience with prone restraint.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10217980898057532&id=1337764352
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10217980898057532&id=1337764352
The next dance sequence is about how Zu is falling in love with Ebo.
Then Ebo warns his students, including an uncomfortable looking Felix, that they should be ready to avoid punches.
Next, Felix's adoptive father shouts at him.
Then Ebo warns his students, including an uncomfortable looking Felix, that they should be ready to avoid punches.
Next, Felix's adoptive father shouts at him.
Zu sings for Ebo. "Music is the soothing saint. Use me to feel all your pain."
Remember when Sia said this film was like "Rain Man"? In Rain Man, the autistic brother Raymond is only there to awaken his brother Charlie's emotions. So this is creepy.
Remember when Sia said this film was like "Rain Man"? In Rain Man, the autistic brother Raymond is only there to awaken his brother Charlie's emotions. So this is creepy.
Ebo gets a dance sequence. "Beautiful things can happen anywhere." But he turns away from sex with Zu.
The next day Zu tries to dump Zu on George but no go, so they go to a drug deal together.
The next day Zu tries to dump Zu on George but no go, so they go to a drug deal together.
They want Percocet, morphine, Dilaudid, and Oxy.
And in a completely bizarre scenes it turns out the client is Sia herself, who plans to donate "a shitload of them" via a private plane to children in Haiti. Who tells strangers that?
Oh, God, another dance sequence.
And in a completely bizarre scenes it turns out the client is Sia herself, who plans to donate "a shitload of them" via a private plane to children in Haiti. Who tells strangers that?
Oh, God, another dance sequence.
Okay, another break. While we are pausing, please watch this short film from @Communica1st : https://communicationfirst.org/listen/
And a palate cleanser: Wawa's "Speech Therapy."
Why'm I sharing dip hop with you in a thread about nonspeaking autistics? Because the Deaf community has been fighting oralism (the idea that speech is the only valid form of communication) longer. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=326935648221202&id=464909913637441
Why'm I sharing dip hop with you in a thread about nonspeaking autistics? Because the Deaf community has been fighting oralism (the idea that speech is the only valid form of communication) longer. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=326935648221202&id=464909913637441
I look up to them and what they have achieved and are achieving. If you are an AAC user, you owe a debt of gratitude to the Deaf community.
So let's recap what we have learned about Music so far. She has *all this* potential and nobody seems to be adequately developing it (Ebo tried). She is portrayed as needing constant supervision (aside from the self-injurious behavior, which actually is either badly acted ...
... or not particularly dangerous (I've gone through periods myself of really dangerous SIB but while I still can't not do it, I am also currently able to not do actual damage) she has seizures and life-threatening allergies, she can't communicate effectively without AAC, ...
... and she seems to only know the way to the library, which is like 3 blocks away. She does not have the supports she needs, including apparently the ones to which she is entitled by law, so it's all falling on her sister, who had no choice in the matter, and Ebo ...
... who seems to be there because he is infatuated with Zu.
She has lost the woman who raised her, and while you would expect a non-traditional expression of grief, she seems to show none at all. She seems happy enough to tag along after Zu, but not connected to anyone.
She has lost the woman who raised her, and while you would expect a non-traditional expression of grief, she seems to show none at all. She seems happy enough to tag along after Zu, but not connected to anyone.
The old stereotype that she is in her own little world and doesn't care about others is there.
It's not super explicit, but a lot of the "justifications" for filicide (parents murdering children) are present in this film. And the U.S. release date (12 Feb) is ...
It's not super explicit, but a lot of the "justifications" for filicide (parents murdering children) are present in this film. And the U.S. release date (12 Feb) is ...
... just more than 2 weeks before the Disability Day of Mourning, when we remember all those disabled people, many of them autistic children, whose parents and caregivers have murdered them over the last year.
These ideas, like the promotion of restraint, have consequences.
These ideas, like the promotion of restraint, have consequences.
To learn more about how, see: https://autisticadvocacy.org/2012/04/killing-words/
To join us as we mourn, see: https://autisticadvocacy.org/projects/community/mourning/
Back to the film. The most forgiving drug connection ever gives Zu the drugs for Sia, and also has her deliver his own bit of charity: HIV meds for Ebo.
On the way to deliver the drugs for Haiti, Musuc is stung by a bee and promptly has an anaphylaxic reaction.
This means Zu is at the hospital missing Ebo's students' boxing exhibition.
Felix, who I don't think I have heard speak yet, hugs his opponent. His father yells.
This means Zu is at the hospital missing Ebo's students' boxing exhibition.
Felix, who I don't think I have heard speak yet, hugs his opponent. His father yells.
After Music has recovered and been released (and the hospital has explained to Zu that she has an Epi-Pen in her fanny pack) we learn that Zu lost the drugs for Sia when Music was stung. Panic ensues.
So Zu leaves Music alone to drunkenly visit Ebo.
So Zu leaves Music alone to drunkenly visit Ebo.
Ebo tells Zu Music can't take care of herself, so Zu screams that he doesn't care about her and starts a physical altercation with a neighbor.
Then off to a bar and another dance sequence. "No one ever said it would be easy."
I'm not a film expert, but these dance sequences seem like they are here in order to tell us what the script is too weak to show us.
I'm not a film expert, but these dance sequences seem like they are here in order to tell us what the script is too weak to show us.
Meanwhile Felix's father, shouting in a language that I am guessing is Mandarin or Cantonese since his name is Chang, abuses his mother. Felix walks in and the father accidentally kills him. It's all very fast.
In the next dance scene Felix dances with Music, pauses to comfort poor Zu, then cheerily departs (to the afterlife?) with Grandma in a bicycle rickshaw.
I do not even know how to react.
I do not even know how to react.
In the morning Music goes to the library and Ebo and Zu reconnect. "I like you so much," he says. "I thought I could maybe feel safe with you." But she can't feel safe with him because of HIV, he says (and let's be fair, Undetectable=Untransmittable only works if you get meds).
So he leaves and George cleans her up.
Montage. Zu goes to her parole officer. She goes to Mr. Touchy Feely Drug Connection. She starts looking for work to pay him off. She areanges to put Music in an institution. Ebo pines and gets ready for his brother's wedding to his ex.
Montage. Zu goes to her parole officer. She goes to Mr. Touchy Feely Drug Connection. She starts looking for work to pay him off. She areanges to put Music in an institution. Ebo pines and gets ready for his brother's wedding to his ex.
The institition is clean and promises to "do the best we can with what we have" and that Music will "love it like a home." https://montgomerycal.wordpress.com/2020/07/09/why-we-need-to-get-people-out-of-congregate-care/
But Music comes up with what may be unscripted speech: "Sit down now." She touches Zu's necklace. And Zu runs out with her and straight to the wedding. She declares that she is learning to love someone. Hey, so is Ebo! They kiss.
Ebo's family clearly has not been updated on this woman because they applaud. Then Ebo plays while Music sings "Music is the soothing saint. Use me to feel all your pain." Because dehumanizing HERSELF makes total sense.
Happy families the next day with THREE fried eggs and a puppy. And, one more dance sequence and mercifully it is over.
Two Golden Globes nominations? What the hell are those people thinking?
Two Golden Globes nominations? What the hell are those people thinking?
