“It’s all the same movie,” says writer Susan Nussbaum in the opening moments of the 2020 documentary Code of the Freaks. “It’s all inspiration.” A Chicago-based collaboration between Nussbaum, director Salome Chasnoff, and scholars Alyson Patsavas and Carrie Sandahl, Code of the Freaks shines a searing light on ableism in mainstream film. During the age of the #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo movements, when Hollywood’s discriminatory practices are coming under increased scrutiny, Code of the Freaks gives much-needed voice to the myriad ways disabled people’s lives are directly impacted by these stories. The documentary takes its title from the infamous 1932 film Freaks, in which members of a band of circus “freaks” adhere to a simple code: “Offend one and you offend them all.” Code of the Freaks runs with this motif, embracing the subversive power of the bond found among the titular “freaks” in one of the very few films ever to portray an “outsider collective” of disabled people. Featuring a diverse cast of disabled writers, actors, activists, and other commentators, Code of the Freaks not only taxonomizes in striking detail the long list of Hollywood’s ableist sins but also defiantly does what Hollywood often refuses to do: tell unique, fully human stories.
In addition to these overt portrayals, Patsavas points out that Hollywood’s power in shaping how we see disability can also obscure our ability to recognize it when it is not sensationalized. For instance, in Best Picture winner Nomadland and nominee Promising Young Woman, trauma and mental illness are folded into layered, multifaceted contexts rather than singled out as “disability stories.” Even conditions of indie production are affected by the narrowness of Hollywood’s vision: Chasnoff explains that Code of the Freaks struggled for funding for many years “because we didn’t want to make ‘a hero’s journey.’ We wanted to depict a community.”
Dir. Salome Chasnoff, 68 min., in wide release on VOD and KinoNow
