Sia’s Controversial Movie: Music

This image is courtesy of rogerebert.com.

This image is courtesy of rogerebert.com.

Sia’s new movie “Music” has outraged the autistic community according to USA today. According to USA Today, the movie follows “…a young autistic woman who falls under the care of her half-sister Zu (Kate Hudson) after her grandmother dies (Mary Kay Place). Zu learns all about Music’s daily routine with the help of Music’s neighbor Ebo (Leslie Odom Jr.)…” The community is mostly critical of scenes that depict restraining Maddie’s “autistic” character. Zoe Gross, director of advocacy at the Autistic Advocacy Network responds by saying, “The autistic community has been fighting for decades to end the use of restraints that traumatize and kill” according to USA Today

Had the filmmakers chosen to meaningfully involve autistic people from the beginning, we could have told them how catastrophically irresponsible it is to encourage viewers to use the kind of deadly restraints that killed Max Benson, Eric Parsa, and many other members of our community.

— Communication First

Much to everyone’s surprise, the movie was nominated for two Golden Globe nominations. This injustice struck even more anger amongst the autistic community prompting a much-needed disclaimer about the use of restraints in the movie. After all the hate and criticism, Sia has deleted her Twitter account and apologized saying, “[her] research was clearly not thorough enough…” according to USA Today. Many critics said the movie wasn’t even about the main character, Music, and “…was filtered through the eyes of someone who was not in the community” according to USA Today. According to the NY Post Communication First, a group for the disabled said, “Had the filmmakers chosen to meaningfully involve autistic people from the beginning, we could have told them how catastrophically irresponsible it is to encourage viewers to use the kind of deadly restraints that killed Max Benson, Eric Parsa, and many other members of our community.”However according to the NY Post, some like National Council on Severe Autism’s president Jill Escher gave the film a positive review, saying “I realize some in the autism community profess to be offended by the portrayal, but why? Perhaps it wasn’t perfect, but it was a beautiful performance on many levels.” There is currently a petition being signed with over 17,000 signatures in order to get the movie taken down. According to Variety and Hannah Marshall, “It is extremely offensive to myself and other autistic individuals. Sia has shown no remorse for her inaccurate and hurtful betrayal of the community.”