Margot Cole interviewed in Turkish!

Margot Cole—an American independent filmmaker, director, and the founder of Crip Video Productions—was recently featured in an in-depth interview for the Turkish digital disability magazine Beyazay Spanning pages 36 to 37 of the October issue, the feature highlights her acclaimed film A Stroke of Endurance and explores crucial conversations around disability in media. Key topics from the interview include: Authentic Representation: Challenging flat, one-dimensional tropes by portraying disabled characters as fully realized, three-dimensional individuals with complex lives. The Story Behind the Film: How A Stroke of Endurance was inspired by Cole's experiences as a university student when one of her professors had a stroke. Accessibility Behind the Camera: Emphasizing that true inclusivity in the film industry requires expanding opportunities and training for disabled directors, writers, and crew members—not just accommodating audiences. You can read the full interview in the October issue of Beyazay at the link but please note the article is in Turkish so you will need to google translate if you do not speak the language. For English speakers a basic translation is below. You founded Crip Video Productions to tell stories about disability from a different perspective. What was missing from the way disabled people were represented in film and television ? Growing up I wasn’t interested in characters with disabilities that I often saw in movies or TV because they were boring to me. The disabled characters I did see often had very little personality and their existence as disabled people was depicted as a tragedy. The disabled character usually exists to teach a lesson as a tool of plot progression rather than go through a full story arc themselves and if the disabled character has a story arc the arc usually deals only with the disability, instead of let’s say, a redemption arc, or a romance, as one example. 2. A Stroke of Endurance was inspired partly by your own experiences as a college student. Why did you choose to turn this experience into a film, and what did you most want audiences to take away from it? “A Stroke Of Endurance” was inspired by my experience being taught by and getting to know a wonderful professor who had a stroke midway through my second semester. The film was my way of processing my emotions about the fact that this professor had nearly died and is now disabled with a nervous system similar to my own disability, Cerebral Palsy. With “A Stroke Of Endurance” I wanted to show that disability comes with both good and bad aspects like other life experiences, because I felt certain movies only put emphasis on the bad aspects of disability and turned disability into something implying a fate worse than death. Since I kept seeing mass produced Hollywood movies about disabled characters who wanted to die shortly after becoming newly disabled I wanted to make a film about a newly disabled person who wanted to live, not to die. The professor has this vibrancy where he would embrace life head on. He does not let fear control him and I wanted to show that on screen. I wanted people in my audience who were new to the experience of life with a disability to know that they can come to those who have lived with disability from birth or childhood for support, and that it is okay to ask for help, and that living independently does not mean you have to face life alone. I also wanted to show audiences how with proper disability accommodations the professor was able to return to his job teaching successfully. 3. We often see disabled characters portrayed either as people to feel sorry for or as “inspirational” figures. What does authentic disability representation mean to you ? When writing my films, my main goal is to write three-dimensional characters that are interesting and engaging. Oftentimes when I see a disabled character in a piece of traditional mass produced media the character is either miserable, depressed, angry, suicidal, or a flawless inspiration that can do things most non-disabled people cannot even do (there are exceptions!). These characteristics are more often than not based solely on their disability. From my observations and experience as a disabled woman, real disabled people are somewhere in between. Disabled people live full vibrant lives, and their flaws usually have nothing to do with their disability. Many of my own flaws and personal mistakes are written into my films since the characters are each an aspect of myself. In terms of casting I always cast a mix of both disabled and non-disabled performers, not because I think a disabled actor is entitled to a role because they are disabled, but because I simply cast who I feel can best get the character’s body language and motivations across to my viewers. As someone with Cerebral Palsy, seeing an able bodied actor imitate my movements, feels unnatural, whereas an actor with Cerebral Palsy can get a wider range of physical expression that I want for the character and pick up on certain subtle details that an able bodied actor often cannot. 4. Accessibility is often discussed in relation to audiences, through captions, audio description or accessible venues. But what does accessibility mean behind the camera? What needs to change so that more disabled people can work as directors, actors, writers and crew members? Disabled people rarely have the opportunity to learn behind the scenes skills in the entertainment industry. I got lucky to be mentored by two amazing disabled actors in New York City USA to hone my acting skills and learn about theatre for seven years, and years before that, be exposed to children’s theatre at age 12 through “Umbrella Children’s Theatre” in New Mexico USA, but I essentially had to teach myself video editing and film making from scratch. This lack of opportunity is often due to locations being inaccessible or people being unwilling to let disabled people take part in classes or training to gain these skills due to ableism. Things like accessible venues and audio descriptions are just as important for disabled people to use off camera as directors, writers, and producers and is easier to implement when added into the production at the pre production stage of filmmaking. My producer who has worked for me since 2016, Dylan Rothbein plans to start her own non profit “Dylan Rothbein Liberty Coalition” to train disabled people in all aspects of film and music production in the near future that will collaborate directly with Crip Video Productions so disabled people interested in the media can build professional resumes. In regards to casting many non-disabled filmmakers have no way of reaching out to disabled actors that they may want to cast, because there is no online database or central location anywhere to gain this information. I think the disabled community needs to create more resources that allow able bodied/non-disabled filmmakers to easily reach out to the disabled community if we want more opportunities. 5. If you could change one thing about the film industry’s approach to disability over the next ten years, what would you want that change to be? I want the film industry to stop seeing us disabled people as burdens or liabilities or tragedies and start seeing us as disabled people who can fully contribute to the film industry and to society as a whole based on skills we earned.