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As members of the Australian Journalists' Association, I'm sure you have encountered injustice in the social system of Australia before. This film however demonstrates how people in the community can directly neglect unavoidable issues such as mental health.
In the 90's, mental health issues were not familiar and commonly discussed or experienced by the wider community, this can be due to naivety, ignorance or intolerance. The film The Black Balloon was released in 2008, and follows the life of a 90's Australian family, the Mollisons, living in suburbia in Queensland and how they deal and manage with a son with severe autism and ADD. The film explores the stigma the Australian community can have towards people with disabilities and how this can affect the lives of those directly affected by the mentally challenged. Through its use and representation of settings and characterization, the film positions viewers to see Australians as intolerant and exclusive to the mentally disabled.
Through the explicit use of characterization throughout the duration of the film, Australians are demonstrated to be bliss in ignorance towards those with mental health issues. Proficient in: Bullying
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The neighbors of the Mollisons in this film are used to directly demonstrate how ill-informed the general community is about mental health issues such as ADD and severe levels of Autism. As this mental issue is extremely severe, it causes Charlie* to be unable to verbally commute as to why he uses sign language, and being only able to make very basic movements. He also can have 'attacks' when something doesn't go his way or he doesn't understand something. One of these occur in the film in the supermarket* where the father, Simon, has to return groceries due to a lack of money and Charlie starts yelling and pushing his dad and brother, Thomas, around.
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The people present at the store watch and stare* in shock, without trying to support Charlie or call for help. This is evident in the body language of a few of the women present at the store, as they turn their bodies away from the situation, whilst the camera switches from their faces down to Charlie on the floor. This shows how people do not fully understand or wish to understand the extreme extent a mental disability can go to and can choose to neglect social situations.
Characterization is also used to demonstrate a level of bullying due to a lack of understanding and empathy towards social and mental issues. This is evident with the boys* at Thomas' public school, where they constantly tease and ridicule those with mental and physical disabilities. Symbolism is used to support this idea such as the 'spastic bus' *that is used to transport kids that attend the local special school. In a scene from the film, the bus pulls up on the curb near a group of boys from the school, as Thomas approaches. The boys throw *food at the bus as it goes past, yelling out "bunch of spastics!" at the bus.
The camera switches from this to Thomas' reaction, showing that he doesn't interject to the situation acting as a bystander and although he is obviously uncomfortable by the situation but does nothing to express this. Also Thomas is persuaded by his peers that those with disabilities are embarrassing, as when Thomas* is forced by his dad to get the 'spastic' bus to school due to running late, he demands to get off on the stop before the school in fear of being seen by the group of boys that harass the bus and his brother each day. This demonstrates the direct effect bullying towards topics where the instigators are uneducated, can have on those directly affected by the mentally challenge.
The use of language devices such as Australian slang in the film The Black Balloon demonstrates how people in the community communicate with each other with very basic, rude and informal vocabulary. An example of this is when the female* neighbor of the Mollisons, attacks Simon after deciding to call child authorities on the family due to uneducated suspicions. This reaffirms how unaccepting the community is of Charlie's mental disabilities and the Morrison family as outsiders. This also represents the lack of understanding the community have for unfamiliar health issues. Also, in the film 'spastic'* is used as a derogatory adjective that commonly and casually describes the mentally and physically impaired. This demonstrates the attitudes of Australians in this time period to one another, and the ideology that Australians can be intolerant to those with mentally disabilities by creating segregating terms to distinguish them from themselves.
So I pose this question to you, as the Australian Journalist Association representatives, where can a line be drawn from* lack of understanding, to infringing discrimination and bullying? The film* expresses the idea that the Australian community is uneducated and unaccepting towards outsiders and those with unfamiliar mental health issues. This has been proven through the use of characterization and language devices throughout the Australian film. It also demonstrates the effect this level of ignorance can have on those specifically affected by the disease, such as Charlie's brother Thomas. The film targets this specific group of people to persuade the viewers to see them in a particular way.
Australian Social System Injustice in Black Balloon. (2023, Mar 24). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/injustice-in-the-australian-social-system-as-exemplified-in-the-movie-black-balloon-essay
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