Scar Tactics

[DanaC]

Here's an issue that I haven't ever really given much thought to:

Some 750 cinemas across the UK will be running a short film to challenge movie attitudes to facial disfigurement.

The one-minute film, starring Downtown Abbey's Michelle Dockery and Leo Gormley, will be shown ahead of feature films at Odeon cinemas for a fortnight.

"We are not suggesting that no villain has a scar, we're just saying, let's be more creative about this," said Alison Rich, of charity Changing Faces.

"It's just become a very lazy shorthand for film-makers," she adds.

"Without saying or doing anything, an actor with a scar can walk on screen and audiences are attuned to thinking 'there's a baddie'," Ms Rich, who is heading up the Face Equality on Film Campaign, told BBC News.

"And that portrayal sets up a moral judgement that extends to the wider world... to the playground, and to the job market."

This suggests that the issue is one that needs addressing;

According to Changing Faces, one in every 111 people in the UK has a significant disfigurement to their face.

Yet a 2008 survey suggested that 90% of people find in difficult to attach positive qualities to people with disfigurements.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17702160