We just found out about a film called “The Guitar Mongoloid,” directed by Swedish Director Ruben Östlund, that will be shown as part of the NYFF49 film festival between Jan 15 and Jan 21, 2015 at Lincoln Center Theater, NYC. More screenings to be held in Maryland and California soon.
According to The Washington Post ‘… Ostlund’s 2004 debut features disjointed vignettes about characters dwelling on society’s fringes. It takes its title from a boy with Down syndrome (Erik Rutstrom) who busks on the streets, whaling away tunelessly on a guitar while screaming obscene lyrics. But the other sequences, which focus on vandals, a woman with an apparent obsessive-compulsive disorder and drunks playing with guns, are equally odd.’
The term “mongoloid,” referring to people with Down’s syndrome, was dropped by the World Health Organization in 1965 because it was (and is!!) considered to be offensive to those of Mongol ethnicity.
We will go to Lincoln Center Theater to voice our concern to Ruben Ostlund (director) and Erik Hemmendorff (producer) and ask them to tell the audience, before the film is shown each time throughout the week, that the term “mongoloid” is offensive and improper/outdated both to Mongols and to the international Down’s syndrome community. They should emphasize that this word should be used properly in the 21st century, according to the original meaning, namely, “related to the culture, language and people of Mongolia.”
We request that they change the name of the film in the near future and add a disclaimer at the beginning of the film until they change it.
Source: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/put-an-end-to-the-slang-use-of-mongolmongoloid
We just found out about a film called “The Guitar Mongoloid,” directed by Swedish Director Ruben Östlund, that will be shown as part of the NYFF49 film festival between Jan 15 and Jan 21, 2015 at Lincoln Center Theater, NYC. More screenings to be held in Maryland and California soon.
According to The Washington Post ‘… Ostlund’s 2004 debut features disjointed vignettes about characters dwelling on society’s fringes. It takes its title from a boy with Down syndrome (Erik Rutstrom) who busks on the streets, whaling away tunelessly on a guitar while screaming obscene lyrics. But the other sequences, which focus on vandals, a woman with an apparent obsessive-compulsive disorder and drunks playing with guns, are equally odd.’
The term “mongoloid,” referring to people with Down’s syndrome, was dropped by the World Health Organization in 1965 because it was (and is!!) considered to be offensive to those of Mongol ethnicity.
We will go to Lincoln Center Theater to voice our concern to Ruben Ostlund (director) and Erik Hemmendorff (producer) and ask them to tell the audience, before the film is shown each time throughout the week, that the term “mongoloid” is offensive and improper/outdated both to Mongols and to the international Down’s syndrome community. They should emphasize that this word should be used properly in the 21st century, according to the original meaning, namely, “related to the culture, language and people of Mongolia.”
We request that they change the name of the film in the near future and add a disclaimer at the beginning of the film until they change it.
Source: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/put-an-end-to-the-slang-use-of-mongolmongoloid