April 24th, 2026
“Suddenly, I find myself feeling sick…”
This case study, written by the curators Charlie Little, Florence Grieve, and Emily Simmons, explores the curatorial inspiration behind the tour, provides an overview of its activities and learnings, and encourages exhibitors to widen their audiences and expand their programming through collaboration with disabled curators.
As part of BFI FAN’s Too Much: Melodrama On Film season, the Independent Cinema Office (ICO) collaborated with three disabled film curators to bring Crip Melodrama: She’s Hysterical on tour to 4 cities across England and Scotland.
The tour’s central title was Todd Haynes’ Safe (1995), with 2025 marking 30 years since the film’s release.
In it, Carol White (Julianne Moore) is a Southern Californian housewife who begins experiencing disorienting symptoms: headaches, congestion, dry cough, nosebleeds, vomiting, and trouble breathing. Dismissed by the people around her whilst she deteriorates with every passing day, Safe is a thoughtful and unnerving representation of what it is to be sick under neoliberal capitalism.
You can watch the tour’s trailer on YouTube with descriptive subtitles.
Curatorial Focus
Under our title Crip Cinema Collective, we presented at the British Film Institute’s Women with a Movie Camera Summit in early 2025, where we explored the broader representation of disabled women in cinema. We looked at different archetypes and film examples such as Freaks, Mad Max, Children of a Lesser God, and, of course, Safe.
Later in the year, we came across the opportunity from BFI FAN’s Melodrama call-out to develop our original presentation into Crip Melodrama: She’s Hysterical. The ICO supported us in honing in on this theme and bringing Safe to broader audiences, offering a recontextualised genre-specific exploration of the representation of disabled women.
The tour’s events and screenings sought to examine the complex representation of disabled women in the melodrama genre. With the ‘hysterical’ woman being a staple trope, we were keen to dissect this portrayal.
The ‘hysterical’ woman is emotional, unstable, defiant, and, often, disabled – a familiar character reflects our culture’s (mis)understanding of sick women. Placing the stereotype of the hysterical woman under the microscope, Safe was a perfect title to examine disabled women in the genre. Despite the film’s release 30 years ago, we observed little recognition of Carol White as a disabled woman in subsequent analyses and interpretations. We wanted to position Safe through the lens of the Social Model of Disability, which recognises chronic illness as a disability due to the framework’s understanding that disability is caused by ableism, social exclusion, physical inaccessibility, and other societal barriers.
We strove to curate a programme that centred access and supported both disabled and non-disabled audiences in reframing and contextualising the film’s themes, its representation of chronic illness, and ‘crip cinema’ at large.
Image description: Wide-shot photograph from Women with a Movie Camera Summit 2025. Florence, Emily and Charlie smile at the camera. Florence, a white woman with tied-back curly hair, is wearing a green shirt. Emily, a white person with shoulder-length brown hair, is wearing a red t-shirt. Charlie, a white person with curly hair in a wolf cut, wears blue jeans and a beige shirt. They are sitting between Florence and Emily. On the screen behind them is the title of their presentation, ‘She’s Hysterical: Disabled Women on Screen.’ The slide features images of disabled women from the films Children of a Lesser God, The Miracle Worker, Safe, Fantastic Four, Freaks, and Girl, Interrupted.
What is crip cinema?
‘Crip’ is an abbreviation of the word ‘cripple’, which has an immensely painful and difficult history as a slur used to oppress and dehumanise disabled people. More recently, this shortened reference has been reclaimed by the disabled community.
It is born out of a movement from the disability community, empowered to confront and challenge ableist attitudes and discrimination, though it remains a contentious word that some disabled people still understandably feel uncomfortable with due to its history.
Disabled people aren’t monolithic, and so, individual preferences surrounding language should always be respected. As three disabled individuals, we felt that ‘crip’ should be part of our season title, as we wanted to emphasise this film as an example of ‘crip cinema’ and help audiences understand the perspective of those who use this term for their own identity and empowerment.
We define ‘crip cinema’ as films that speak to something about the crip experience, resonate with crip audiences, or have a crip writer, director, or lead actor. Modern crip cinema is also thoughtful and complex in terms of its crip representation, which tends to be authentic and disabled-led. But, we also understand that repertory representation can be particularly nuanced and difficult because it may show material that reflects outdated or offensive attitudes, and is less likely to be disabled-led in its creation. We don’t wish to erase the history of disability representation, but instead, address and contextualise these examples using disabled voices to lead its curation and discussion.
Implementing cross-disability access was hugely important for our events, and we used over half of our project funding to support access costs, which primarily contributed towards new audio description, live-captioning, and BSL/English interpretation. The creation of a new audio description track from Matchbox Cine meant that blind and partially sighted audiences could fully experience this film for the first time, as AD hadn’t existed for Safe on streaming, physical media, or theatrical releases.
Image description: Black title card with bold, white, capitalised text that reads “All events with British Sign Language interpretation and live captions.”
Image description: Black title card with bold, white, capitalised text that reads “All screenings with descriptive subtitles and audio description.” The symbols for audio description and descriptive subtitles are featured on the title card.
“The audio description at Safe was delivered through a clear voice, very succinctly scripted. So I understood the emotions of the characters, the actions they made, and the environment they were in. I was able to appreciate the psychological struggle of the main character against the exploitative therapeutic institutions around her.”
— Chanyau Chong, audience member
Image description: Photograph of Florence, a curly-haired white woman wearing a black jumpsuit, interviewing Lindsey Dryden, a white woman with long brown hair wearing black with a blue scarf. The BSL interpreter, a white woman with short brown hair, sits next to them. Behind them is a screen with a still of Carol White from the film Safe holding a glass of milk. The text reads, ‘Crip Melodrama: She’s Hysterical’. Yellow live captions on a black background are at the bottom of the screen.
Access measures for Crip Melodrama: She’s Hysterical included:
- BSL/English interpretation for introductions and discussions
- Live captioning/transcripts for introductions and discussions
- On-screen descriptive subtitles for film screenings
- Optional audio description for film screenings (with the exception of one event, due to venue technical capacity)
- Relaxed screenings (with the exception of one event, due to venue capacity)
- Wheelchair access and step-free access
- Access notes and content notes
- Inviting audiences to wear masks and test for COVID-19 prior to events
Image description: Curator Florence, a white woman with curly brown hair wearing a black coat over a red jumper, tries out the audio description headset at Watershed, Bristol. The headset is black and sits over Florence’s ears whilst she smiles at the camera. In the background is the first-floor atrium of Watershed, which is light with white walls and wooden flooring.
Crip Melodrama Events Overview
- 1 film
- 1 extended introduction
- 1 zine-making workshop
- 1 newly-commissioned audio description track
- 2 post-film discussions
- 3 curators
- 3 guest speakers
- 3 relaxed screenings
- 4 cities
- 4 events
- 5 BSL interpreters
- 30 years since Safe’s release
- 150 badges
- 174 audience members
We wanted to amplify other disabled perspectives on Safe and its wider themes, so we worked with three other guest speakers who each brought their lived experiences and insights as disabled filmmakers to our events.
Barbican, London
Our launch event was a film screening led by a brilliant, extended introduction from Georgia Kumari Bradburn of Stims Collective. Georgia stepped in for Crip Melodrama curator, Emily Simmons, who had been unable to take part due to illness.
Stims Collective is a collective of film scholars, journalists and filmmakers, with a mission to create and curate relaxed spaces for neurodiverse audiences.You can read Georgia’s full introduction on Stims Collective’s Substack.
We also created two badge designs that audiences were able to take away with them as a keepsake of the event.
Image description: Close-up photograph of a Safe DVD covered by lots of badges. The first badge design features a blue background and a close-up of a glass as milk is poured into it. Overlapping this image is red text that reads “Crip Melodrama: She’s Hysterical.” The second badge design features an image of Carol White from the film Safe. She is a white woman with straight, red, shoulder-length hair (played by Julianne Moore). She is wearing a pink, satin dressing robe and holding a glass of milk. The background features a spiral staircase. The overlapping text reads, “Suddenly I find myself feeling sick…”
“…Safe is a film that explores not just the fear of sickness, or disability that comes with it, but the intricacies of what it means to be sick, who you become, and the pathway to reframing sickness as a rallying cry for change. And rather than playing into the ableist misogyny that invented the idea of hysteria, Safe exposes it, deconstructs it, and encourages us to empathise with the experience of being a disabled woman.”
– Georgia Kumari Bradburn
Image description: Close-up from Crip Melodrama’s launch event at the Barbican. Georgia Bradburn is wearing headphones and holding a microphone and a tablet. She’s speaking into the microphone and standing in front of a cinema screen. The screen’s holding slide features an image from the film Safe, showing Carol (played by Julianne Moore) standing in a modern kitchen, holding a glass of milk, and wearing a satin robe. There are two QR codes on each slide: one for live captions and one for the survey. There’s large white text that reads “Crip Melodrama: She’s Hysterical”. At the bottom of the slide are the logos for BFI FAN and the ICO. At the top of the screen is the live-caption overlay for Georgia’s introduction.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh
Our second event was a film screening hosted by Crip Melodrama curator Charlie Little, followed by a discussion with filmmaker and researcher Erica Monde.
This event was thoroughly supported by Monde’s insights, whose specialisms include the environment and chronic illness. The audience was eager to keep these conversations going, overflowing into the Filmhouse bar area once the Q&A wrapped.
Image description: Photograph of Charlie Little and Erica Monde sitting in front of the projection screen with the same holding slide. Erica is a white person with short hair, wearing dark clothing. They’re looking at Charlie, who is speaking into a microphone. There’s a small table next to them, with water and a popcorn box.
Midlands Art Centre (MAC), Birmingham
Our third event was a film screening followed by a zine-making workshop, hosted by Crip Melodrama curator Florence Grieve.
We were committed to finding a less intimidating and more relaxed way for audiences to explore the tour’s topics outside of a Q&A, which can feel like a self-conscious space for some. We also wanted audiences to leave with something tangible that represented their own musings and interpretations of the film and the wider theme of disabled women in melodrama.
Image description: Photograph of a zine-making workshop taking place at MAC, Birmingham. Florence, a white woman with curly brown hair wearing a red sleeveless jumper over a white t-shirt, is cutting pictures from a magazine. She is sitting at a table covered in materials such as glue sticks, written instructions, gel pens, and example magazines. The arm of one of the participants is visible as it opens a magazine.
Watershed, Bristol
Our final event was a film screening hosted by Florence Grieve, followed by a discussion with writer, producer, and director Lindsey Dryden. We explored our fluctuating feelings towards the film, as well as Safe’s long-lasting influence, including its impact on director Jennifer Brea of the documentary Unrest, which explores chronic illness, a project Lindsey worked on as a producer.
Image description: Photograph of Florence, a curly-haired white woman wearing a black jumpsuit, interviewing Lindsey Dryden, a white woman with long brown hair wearing black with a blue scarf. The BSL interpreter, a white woman with short brown hair, sits next to them. Behind them is a screen with a still of Carol White from the film Safe holding a glass of milk. The text reads, ‘Crip Melodrama: She’s Hysterical’. Yellow live captions on a black background are at the bottom of the screen.
What were the outcomes of Crip Melodrama?
- Disabled-led curation
- Access at the core of planning and delivery
- Thoughtful conversations about disabled women across the melodrama genre and wider
- Positive feedback and engagement from disabled and non-disabled audiences
- Inclusive spaces for disabled people to experience accessible cinema-going and film discussion
- Clear demonstration of an appetite and demand for this programming and discussion facilitation
- ICO’s skillset, network, and establishment as a BFI FAN Hub afforded us the valuable opportunity of developing our experiences as early-career curators in a thoughtful and accessible way
What were the learnings from Crip Melodrama?
- The end-of-year festive period meant there was less disposable income and less availability for audiences.
- Events with less dedicated marketing support meant that wider audiences weren’t able to engage with our events, especially during the busy end-of-year period.
- Limited funding meant that we couldn’t spend more time and resources on expanding access, outreach efforts, and collaborations, i.e. working with a disabled designer for marketing assets such as a season poster.
What was the impact of Crip Melodrama?
In the aftermath of our events, we each individually received anecdotal comments and positive feedback from audiences about the curation, with people asking whether there are more projects and events to come. People living with chronic illness praised the events, noting that they hadn’t come across this film, its framing, and that they felt seen and resonated with the topic. The visibility of this programming, crip cinema, and disabled audiences was a key motivation for us to run this tour, which we felt we strongly met.
As programmers with access needs, we gained valuable experience, upskilling, and audience interactions that we can bring to future projects. There are few accessible programming opportunities for disabled curators, so this tour enabled us to widen our curatorial experience.
Audience Feedback
“I feel like this was a really great space for disabled creatives and allies.”
“Great insights in the post-film discussion, good for me to hear disabled perspectives and get a read of a film that provides more insights.”
“…I wish to see and hear more from this programme…”
“Thank you for this programming!”
Image description: Close-up from Crip Melodrama’s launch event at the Barbican. Georgia Bradburn is wearing headphones and holding a microphone and a tablet. She’s speaking into the microphone and standing in front of a cinema screen. The screen’s holding slide features an image from the film Safe, showing Carol (played by Julianne Moore) standing in a modern kitchen, holding a glass of milk, and wearing a satin robe. There are two QR codes on each slide: one for live captions and one for the survey. There’s large white text that reads “Crip Melodrama: She’s Hysterical”. At the bottom of the slide are the logos for BFI FAN and the ICO. At the top of the screen is the live-caption overlay for Georgia’s introduction.
Partner Feedback
“I’m always looking with our partnerships to work with outside groups who have great ideas that are meaningful and specific enough to encourage people who otherwise feel excluded or aren’t in the habit of going to indie sites to give it a go. We’ve had a good connection with the three curators on this project in the past, and I’ve always noticed the sense of fun and depth in how they approached things, despite the complexities involved in making work accessible for the widest possible group of disabled audiences. Safe has long been a favourite of mine, but I was surprised at the different side of the film they showed me with the curation. I’m sure that’s true of audiences they reached with their events, disabled or not, first time watch or not. We were glad to be able to connect with cinemas who embraced the vision for the events and collaborated in bringing the curators’ vision to life.”
– Duncan Carson, ICO
“We were very happy to host Crip Melodrama as part of our programme which gave us valuable insight as a newly reopened venue on how we can support disabled curators, guests, and audience members. Screening Safe in this context felt especially important and relevant in this post-COVID era and it was an important opportunity to learn and implement how we can make our programme, marketing, and space more accessible.”
– Filmhouse
Ultimately, Crip Melodrama: She’s Hysterical proved that there is a strong appetite and need for this type of programming and disabled-led contextualisation. There is a significant audience seeking these events and curation, demonstrating that exhibitors and funders should invest in accessible opportunities for disabled curators and programmers to bring their expertise and expand programming, enabling wider audience development and reach.
