FIXED: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement

Posted by Jonathan Chernoguz November 12, 2014
Biopolitical Times

FIXED: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement, the documentary produced and directed by Regan Brashear, has recently shifted to the center of a variety of discussions and symposia on normalcy and disability. 

The University of Rochester is hosting its first-ever Disability Studies Cluster Symposium this Friday, November 14, which has been crafted and organized around the film.  The symposium is titled “Complicating Normalcy: Disability, Technology, and Society in the Twenty-First Century.” 

The film will also be screened on opening night at the Other Film Festival, the largest disability film festival in Australia, on December 3.  Additionally, the United Nations has just licensed the film for its work on the Convention for Rights of People with Disabilities.

FIXED questions commonly held beliefs about disability and normalcy by exploring technologies that promise to change our bodies and mind forever. The film follows five people with disabilities and explores the implications new human enhancing technologies have on them. 

Clark Miller, Associate Director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at ASU, raved about its interdisciplinary importance for students and faculty,

This film is extremely important and will be very valuable for faculty from dozens of different disciplines from the biological sciences to disability studies to the humanities and social sciences, precisely because it confronts one of the central issues of our time: how to make sense of variations among human beings and how to make sense of our capacity for radical technological innovation that will change our entire futures.

Brashear has been in touch with CGS since the beginning of production, and the documentary features CGS Executive Director Marcy Darnovsky sharing her concern about the potential misuses of new and emerging human biotechnologies. 

FIXED was screened at Future Past: Disability, Eugenics, and Brave New Worlds in 2013, a public symposium that CGS co-organized with the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability, Facing History and Ourselves, and Living Archives on Eugenics in Western Canada. This symposium focused on the historical and ongoing implications of eugenic ideologies and practices for people with disabilities, and FIXED synthesized many topics of the day, while providing new food for thought. 

Also in 2013, CGS hosted a Talking Biopolitics conversation with Regan Brashear, in which she discussed the reception of the film.

FIXED is a great film for promoting discussion about the profound implications of new technologies on the lives of people with – and without – disabilities. It's wonderful to see it getting so much well-deserved attention. To learn more about the film, watch the trailer, or buy a copy, see more here.

Previously on Biopolitical Times: