Awards & Reviews
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Liz Crow
Resistance on Tour
Resistance on the Plinth
Resistance Drama
Resistance Conversations
Nectar
Making Nectar
Frida Kahlo’s Corset
The Real Helen Keller
1831 Riot!
Illumination
21 Things to Remember
Open Road
Dear Diary: Bristol to Tijuana
Writing
Making Film Accessible -
Liz Crow
Press
Q and A, The Spark, December 2011 to February 2012 (1.9Mb)
60 Seconds, Dublin Metro Herald, 29 November 2010 (3.2Mb)
Home Movies, Motability, August 2010 (299kb)
13 Questions, BBC Ouch!, November 2009 (176kb) -
Resistance on Tour
Awards
- Liverpool Daily Post Arts Award, 2009
Press Reviews
Art installation at uni highlights Disability History Month, University of Bedfordshire Ezine, November 2011 (418kb)
History as art, Ink Pellet, July 2011 (504kb)
Resistance: which way the future?, Trinity News, 3 December 2010 (311kb)
If No-One Speaks Out Then Nothing Changes, Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, 4.1 (2010) pp 205-208 (115kb)
T4: Hitler’s Holocaust Rehearsal, Disability Now, June 2009 (220kb)
Inside Story: Resistance by Liz Crow, Disability Arts Online, 20 October 2009 (124kb)
Review: DaDaFest 2009 – Resistance, Disability Arts Online, 25 November 2009 (136kb)
Culture Chat, Liverpool Echo, 4 December 2009 (264kb)“One of the most moving exhibitions I have ever visited. I kid you not. I implore you to go and see this.”
Richard Atkins, BBC Radio Gloucestershire (16 October 2011)
“If great art is defined as stopping people in their tracks and making them think, this production is up there with the best.”
Susan Bennett, Disability Arts Online Review (November 2009)
“Ultimately it’s Resistance’s gentle eloquence that kicks you hard in the stomach and makes it difficult to breathe.”
Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post (December 2009)
“Rather than depressingly focusing on the continuing plight of disabled people, Resistance looks at the continuing fight for disability rights and uses storytelling to encourage debate on how to learn from the past.”
Kelly Mullan, Disability Now (December 2009)
“It’s not heavy, or preachy, or horribly worthy – it’s a very powerful and moving piece that deserves to have as wide an audience as possible. Catch it while you can.”
Catherine Jones, Liverpool Daily Post (December 2009)
“Some moments go on resounding for days, like being brought up short in Resistance: one of those times when you have to confront the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of our lives. This exhibition, by Liz Crow, of film, photos and voiceovers of disabled people in a Nazi euthanasia programme trod a fine line between sensationalism and truth, brutality and reality, but did so with incredible control. I was left with a voice that echoed in my head long after I’d left: ‘What’s unfair is that we think the world’s being unfair is normal.’”
Disability Now (January 2010)
Other Reviews
“I saw Resistance in DC. One of the most powerful things I have ever experienced. And I think the first thing my son has seen that helped him fully understand the Holocaust. Up to now it felt more like something that happened to other people – and to see the group around the kitchen table remembering the things they loved I think brought it home for him. I was so amazed by it, I went back to see it twice more. Each time I saw more and took more away from the experience.”
Susan Fitzmaurice
“It is not often that words fail me, but I can’t begin to describe the impact this devastatingly-powerful installation had on me. This is tremendously important work, brilliantly and concisely realised into a package which will haunt me for a long, long time.”
Comment on Facebook
“Resistance is an important project which raises issues of great relevance for today and will provide an excellent forum for engaging public debate and challenging public ideas. I hope that it will gain the platform it so clearly warrants.”
Baroness Neuberger DBE
“Resistance is a powerfully conceived exploration of an important but neglected subject… Liz Crow’s dramatisation vividly conveys the horror, but extends beyond the stark exposure of the historical reality to a reflection on its implications for us today.”
Roger Malbert, Senior Curator, Hayward
“A thought provoking, disturbing evening which I would never have wanted to miss. A few minutes of viewing has left me with many hours of thought.”
Charles Royden, Deputy Mayor of Bedford
“This is a courageous project that is characteristically ambitious. It promises high artistic quality and, at a time when Europe is struggling to find culture that enables intercultural dialogue, it will be a fantastic catalyst for debating shared values.”
Venu Dhupa, Consultant to the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
“Your project communicates a powerful message about resistance to oppression, particularly in relation to disabled people.”
The Earl of Snowdon
“This is art as it should be, relevant to our lives, opening our minds, and we can’t wait to see it in a gallery near us.”
Silvie Fisch, Director, Disability Cultural Projects
“…a remarkable film… a real must see”
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of Bristol, Councillor Geoffrey Gollop
“I am one of the creatives involved in making the Resistance drama and would like to express how working on it affected me. I am German myself, have in the past learnt much about the atrocities committed during the fascist era by my country and yet this was the first time that the systematic killing of disabled people during the Nazi regime was brought to my attention.
“I think this work succeeds in telling this story in a way that made me feel deeply emotionally involved and left me wanting to learn more about the campaign of euthanasia and the ideology behind it for which many of my forefathers and mothers fell without much hesitation. The ideas about what constitutes a life worth living and the moral concepts which, pushed to their most extreme, are used here to justify the murders of some of the most vulnerable people in society, are in many ways still topical today… This installation is an ideal vehicle to engage the public in a debate about some of these issues, especially so since it presented by a group of people who are all personally affected by the issues which it raises.”Claudio Ahlers, Composer
“This timely installation will help to focus popular attention on the fact that in any such eugenic programmes (whether murderous or simply ‘preventative’) there are real, actual people , with individual lives, characters and stories, who are caught up in what is presented purely as science. I encourage you to bring this work, and with it the debate, to as wide an audience as possible.”
Irina Metzler, Author Disability in Medieval Europe
“I am writing to congratulate you on a fantastic project. The idea of a film-based installation that explores the horrors of Aktion-T4 is quite something. The fact that millions of Jewish people were systematically murdered in Nazi Germany has brought shame on humanity for eternity, but this is only worsened if we forget that thousands of disabled people were subject to the same inhumanity. Projects such as yours will surely help to stop this from happening.”
Dr. David Bolt, Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Disability Research, Lancaster University
“Most people say they have heard about the Holocaust, they saw enough, and we don’t need any more of it. Yet, records show that there is hardly any material available for Hitler Other’s Victims. That is the disabled, the deaf, the gypsy, the black and lesbian, gay and bisexual people in the Holocaust. Some even call them the forgotten victims… This installation will be a vital archive material as to what happened to Disabled people in the Holocaust. Resistance is not just another Holocaust story; it is the story of Disabled people, the T4 programme which looked to eliminate disability from the face of the earth.”
Eva Fielding-Jackson, Senior Youth and Community Worker/ Specific- Disability, Organiser of Holocaust Memorial Day event, Bristol City Council
“This is such a crucial work in that it explores in a terrible, but widely unheard of, aspect of the Holocaust, and an important and empowering response from the disabled community. It is far from depressing and in a period of economic unrest and global fear it is unfortunately timely.”
Jonny Persey, Met Film
“At a time when all organisations in the Criminal Justice System (particularly the Crown Prosecution Service) are looking at ways of publicising the reporting of Hate Crime against disabled people it is of paramount importance to recognise the relevance of your project.”
Stephen Brookes MBE BA (Hons), Disability Training and Media Research
“It really excites me that somebody is thinking about disabled people’s place in that terrible history and wanting to raise awareness that the ideology and practice of the Nazis was not just about exterminating Jews but about exterminating everybody who did not conform to a very narrow and unrealistic perception of the human race. We need to make sure that the ideas do not slip into our laws and practices however benign they may seem. This project is relevant to today and relevant to everybody.”
Lani Parker
“As a woman of Italian Jewish descent, the events of the holocaust are part of my heritage as well as history. As a disabled woman – and someone who has experienced mental ill health through significant periods of my life – I am utterly convinced that the outrages of Aktion-T4 must be more exposed and discussed, but at the same time must reflect with pride disabled people’s ongoing capacity to overcome gargantuan struggles throughout history. This project does just that.”
Moya Harris, Equal Measures
“It’s an ambitious task to combine the topic of war, which is an important historical issue as well as it is one of ethics, much spoken about but never deep enough, and the issue of disabled people’s situation. It’s a ‘double-deep’ step to survey of the ethics of human relationships. It’s definitely a new, unknown face of reality. I sincerely hope Poland will appear on the list of countries to see the installation for both topics are live and in high need of fair and open discussion here.”
Kseniya Kviatkouskaya, Student of Collegium Medicum, Iagellonian University in Cracow, Poland; Coordinator of The Cracovian DeafNight Project
“As a historian, I am concerned that too often this significant historical event gets overlooked or is dismissed as irrelevant. In fact, people with disabilities were the first victims of the Holocaust. Attention must be paid. I hope that eventually you will be able to bring this work on tour in the United States.”
Paul K. Longmore, Professor of History and Director, Institute on Disability, San Francisco State University
“Resistance is one of the most important and courageous projects yet to be undertaken. The attempted genocide of anyone with an impairment or long term health condition by the Nazis during the 1930s and 40s was one of the most appalling atrocities in human history. It is crime against humanity which has been almost completely wiped from our collective memory. This is mainly because many governments across Europe and North America in the first half of the last century were sympathetic to the eugenic ideas upon which it was justified. These ideas remain with us today and find expression in the justification for selective abortion, assisted suicide and the growing problem of hate crime. If the mistakes of the past are not to repeated, it is imperative that this project be given fullest support.”
Professor Colin Barnes, Centre for Disability Studies, University of Leeds
“The Resistance project is a timely aesthetic and intellectual force recovering a history threatened by obscurity. It demonstrates the difference that committed independent filmmakers can make to the project of fully inclusive social justice. It deserves to grace the curriculum of every Media and Film Studies course in the country.”
Irene Rose, Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies, Liverpool John Moores University, Co-Founder of the Cultural Disability Studies Network
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Resistance on the Plinth
Awards
- The Guardian’s Trafalgar Top Ten on the plinth
Press Reviews
Review: Liz Crow at centre stage on Antony Gormley’s Fourth Plinth, Disability Arts Online, 9 August 2009 (128kb)
Shock Tactics to Teach Lessons from History, Liverpool Echo, 2 November 2009 (60kb)
Bristol Artist draws on Nazi past to defend disabled rights, Bristol Evening Post, 12 August 2009 (76kb)
(Dia)logics of Difference Disability, performance and spectatorship in Liz Crow’s Resistance on the Plinth, Bree Hadley in Performance Research, Taylor & Francis, Volume 16, Issue 2, 2011
(Dia)logics of Difference Disability, performance and spectatorship in Liz Crow’s Resistance on the Plinth, Bree Hadley, Performance Studies international (PSi) Conference 2010, June 2010, Toronto, Canada. (Unpublished)“Full marks for nerve.”
The Guardian
“Compelling.”
Bristol Evening Post
“Very cool… a very powerful piece of art. Before I knew it, I was handing out leaflets!… it was lovely to be sucked into it.”
BBC Ouch talkshow
“…a dignified but powerful statement against extreme right wing politics in its worse manifestation.”
Crippen’s blog
“Many of the plinthers have used their hour to espouse favourite causes, be it children’s charities, bee preservation or understanding of chess. But few if any have produced a piece of work as compelling as this, which will undoubtedly remain one of the most significant contributions to Gormley’s project. Apart from the importance of the content, it presented a series of memorable images, carefully choreographed to take advantage of space and time.”
Allan Sutherland, Disability Arts Online
“Another biggie of 2009 was Liz Crow’s seminal live performance on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square. It was a much-needed statement about the lack of equality for disabled people at a time when disability is getting less recognised as a form of oppression.”
Disability Arts Online
Other Reviews
“This is an image to make people stop and look and think. There is no room to be complacent. It was ordinary doctors and nurses who voluntarily murdered disabled people and it was ordinary people who stood back and let it happen. The hidden holocaust as it is sometimes referred to is something that could easily happen again. You may think that is ridiculous, but they thought that last time too.”
Mat Fraser, actor and presenter
“Brave & startling.”
on Twitter
“A REALLY striking/evocative/emotive image.”
on Twitter
“Very moving, and your silent clarity caused me (I hope amongst many others) to question further my previous over-idealistic beliefs about the ‘right to die’…”
on Facebook
“We all got up early (6am here) to watch you for the hour from Brisbane Australia. Wow well done, the imagery was so effective.”
on Facebook
“incredible… so powerful my eyes leaked
”on Facebook
“A strong piece of silent protest that made more of an impact than a thousand words!”
on Facebook
“…really powerful… quite heart stopping. Your stint has been one of the most remarkable I’ve seen”
on Facebook
“…beautifully done. You had us all rivited to the computer for the whole hour.”
on Facebook
“You were brilliant – so powerful. People were given a message most of them had never heard before. I hope they pass it on!”
on Facebook
“Great concept. Bold image. Important message.”
One & Other comments
“We must speak out for the past and current threat of eugenics and encouraging people to die rather than live. Go Liz.”
One & Other comments
“Everyone should watch – and speak out. It’s happening today, without the uniform.”
One & Other comments
“Beautiful and brave. Thank you so much for this hour. Art and meaning. Well done.”
One & Other comments
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Resistance Drama
Reviews
“If Resistance does not break your heart, you had no heart to break.”
on Facebook
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Resistance Conversations
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Nectar
Awards
- Merit Award, Superfest 2006
- Governor of California’s Media Access Award 2006
- DVD of the Month, One in Seven magazine
- Best Male Actor, Best Director, Best Short Film, International Cinema and Video Festival of the Deaf, Milan, 2006
- Honorable Mention, Projections Film Festival 2007
- Telecommunications Foundation for the Deaf: Film of Note
Press Reviews
An Olympic Challenge, Showreel, May/June 2006 (1.2MB)
“The jewel of the festival… an exceptional achievement.”
Disability Now
“Nectar is up there with the likes of Notting Hill and Love Actually.”
Evening Post
Other Reviews
“A beautifully directed, warm and entertaining drama with great performances and an evocative period atmosphere. Nectar is surprising, thought provoking and memorable”
Peter Cattaneo, Director, The Full Monty
“A beautifully directed, evocative, well-crafted period set piece.”
Paul Trijbits, UK Film Council New Cinema Fund
“A wonderful story that draws you in and takes you away. I couldn’t bear to blink. The film is shot with the detailed attention of a word perfect poet and takes the use of words in films to a new level. When the credits start rolling the viewer is left thinking. I can’t stop thinking about it, I like thinking films. I have heard of nectars that must be tasted, this Nectar has to be seen.”
Benjamin Zephaniah, poet
“Liz Crow’s Nectar is a beautifully crafted, classy piece of quality, mainstream drama that enchants, intrigues and delights the viewer.”
Mat Fraser, actor, presenter and musician
“Nectar made me cry like a big girl. I think it’s great. Great performances, looks amazing, great sound design. Ah hell, it’s fantastic.”
Ben Blaine, Mobile Cinema
“A sweet uplifting film about making your own choice. A simple story, yet very moving, showing different kinds of courage and consequential emotions portrayed so well by actors Jacob Casselden and Ian Chandler. I can predict a deaf audience cheering when they see what Walter does with his hearing aid.”
Caroline Parker, Deaf performer
“…a poignant love story….a gem”
Superfest
“A highly professional, must-see film. It is a simple but poignant love story that subtly intertwines with complex Deaf cultural, sign language, disability and access issues. Once seen, this film will not be forgotten.”
Forest Books
“Nectar gives a sense of light and life from times past. A film rich in content and vibrant in humanity.”
Teatrale Senza Parole – Milano
“With glorious cinematography and exquisite attention to detail, established British director Liz Crow creates a cinematic jewel.”
University of Mary Washington
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Making Nectar
Reviews
“I was particularly impressed by how the film and documentary work at so many different levels – how the simple love story subtly intertwines with complex Deaf cultural, sign language, disability and access issues. Enthralling.”
Forest Books
Frida Kahlo’s Corset
Awards
- Picture This Moving Image (UK): Short Film Award
- Disability Film Festival (London) Best of the Fest
- Picture This Festival (Canada): Honourable mention
- Moscow International Disability Film Festival award
- Selected for the British Council catalogue.
Press Reviews
“Liz Crow’s Frida Kahlo’s Corset uses an orthopaedic corset as focus for Kahlo’s fierce refusal to be ashamed of her disability or let it be presented as tragic. Intercut with Kahlo’s own words, a scene of clinical hospital whiteness is brought to life by a drop of red blood and builds to lush colour. This is a remarkably assured debut from a new director of real visual flair.”
Disability Now
“[The film] evokes a Frida exulting in her identity. A passionate and sensual portrait of the artist, the film has the surreal quality of a painting coming to life.”
Disability Arts in London
Other Reviews
“A wonderful poetic and evocative film… Unmissable. “
Greenbelt Festival
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The Real Helen Keller
Awards
- Picture This Festival (Canada): Best over 30 minute documentary 2002
- Disability Film Festival (London) Best of the Fest 2000, 2001
Press Reviews
“At last, a flesh and blood portrayal of Helen Keller. A vivid portrait of a passionate woman who earned her place on the FBI’s wanted list for her radical views and political activism. A remarkable documentary with some fascinating material previously suppressed by the US authorities and the Keller family.”
Vertigo independent film magazine
“A wry and witty look at the truth beyond the myth. Wonderfully sharp, with unexpected laugh-out-loud moments.”
Channel Four
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1831 Riot!
Awards
- Finalist with Hewlett Packard’s Mobile Bristol in the Computing Awards for Excellence 2004
- Shortlisted for the New Media Awards, 2005
Press Reviews
“the first ever located radio play, designed to unfold as you walk around Queen Square”
Guardian 25 March 2004
“If you think history and technology don’t mix, this might just change your mind.”
BBC Points West
Audience Reviews
“I felt I was in a world of my own and when someone rushed over to me and told me walk in the middle of the square he made me jump and I thought who’s this strange person because I felt I was in another world.”
Audience member
“Oh it’s good because otherwise you walk here and you say oh a very nice Square, a statue, and you would sit on a bench and take a picture and then you would move on. Whereas now you see that it is filled with history.”
Audience member
“Yeah, there’s one thing to read about something and see pictures, but when you actually hear the pain and the anguish and a bit of the gore that went along with it, it makes you think, well this actually happened.”
Audience member
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Illumination
Reviews
“A wonderful piece of cinema; a well told and moving story and a visual feast to boot.”
Jonny Persey, Producer, Deep Water, Wondrous Oblivion
“Who wouldn’t be charmed by this delightful tale of a young girl who wants flashing shoes! Set to a jazzy beat, clever cutting and an interesting staccato effect in the animation the film moves along nicely to a joyous conclusion.”
Richard Bazley, Animator, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Pocahontas, Hercules
“Meme en animation, tu sembles exceller! La aussi les images parlent d’elles meme! Bravo!
Even in animation, you seem to excel! There too, the images speak! Well done!”Reviewer, Raindance TV
“A lovely story, elegantly told with a really effective and innovative combination of photos, graphics and drawing.”
Peter Cattaneo, Director, The Full Monty, Opal Dream
“A delightful film that can be understood on many levels from a simple tale of a little girl’s heartfelt wish to a wry comment on consumerism that many a parent will appreciate. This is a beautifully and imaginatively constructed film suitable for children (and adults) of all ages
David Green, primary school teacher
“This short film enlightens and highlights the importance of a child’s imagination. We forget that imagination and dreams will take you beyond possessions. Recommended.”
Buy Nothing Day UK
“Fab.”
Max, aged 8
21 Things to Remember
Awards
- Picture This Festival (Canada): Best drama by a disabled filmmaker 2005
Press Reviews
“Online treat…a film to remember”
Bristol Evening Post
Other Reviews
“Great script – well told, humorous story”
Picture This Festival
“Brilliant! I have actually watched it five times so far this evening.”
Leslie Hall, George Washington University
Open Road
Awards
- Highly commended in CobraVision ITV short film competition
Reviews
“A film of exuberance and delight, it made be laugh out loud.”
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Dear Diary: Bristol to Tijuana
Awards
- Shortlisted for Raspberry Ripple Awards
Reviews
“Deeply moving”
Simon Hoggart on Pick of the Week
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Writing
Awards
- Winner, Plain Language Commission’s Clear English Standard for Apprenticeship Scheme Handbook
- Contributor to ‘Musn’t Grumble’, MIND’s Book of the Year 1995
Reviews
“The pivotal chapter is undoubtedly Liz Crow’s Including All of Our Lives… Liz Crow’s challenge to [the] orthodoxy is both fundamental and sustained… The echoes can be heard throughout the book as a whole.”
British Journal of Social Work
“Probably the definitive essay on the subject”
Biodiverse blog on ‘Including All Our Lives’
“Her intervention going so bravely against the grain of disability rhetoric and acceptability, will have a major impact on the movement.”
Dr Tom Shakespeare on ‘Including All Our Lives’
“brave and provocative”
Everywoman on ‘Including all our Lives’
“The iconic image from this collection”
Anne Jackson on ‘Day in the Life of Liz’ in Disability & Society
“Disability Arts – The Business! provides down-to-earth information in a clear and professional manner. To review a book such as this is difficult because it impresses from the start, how do you pick holes in something which is patently of so much value and worth and how do you then avoid being over fulsome in praise?”
Kit Wells, Disability Arts in London
“The Bible!”
Plymouth Disability Arts on Disability Arts – The Business!
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Making Film Accessible
Awards
- Commendation, eWell-Being Award
- Superfest Merit Award Superfest
- Nomination, New Statesman New Media Award
Press Reviews
A concept set to enrich cinematic experience for visually challenged, The Hindu, 28 October 2011 (504kb)
Other Reviews
“Nectar was India’s introduction to audio description and has really set everyone thinking. We are now trying to promote the idea of audio description in India.”
