"There Are Others Worse Off than Us ...."
1972 · 57m · Canada
Directed by Yves Dion
Genres: documentary, drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
A young married couple, both living with cerebral palsy, choose independence over dependence: they marry, have a child and draw strength from each other despite every movement requiring effort.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Look, I respect the refusal to play inspiration-porn games, but this still feels like it's working *within* the disability doc playbook rather than torching it—it's anti-sentimentality as a form of restraint, not subversion.
Dion's 1972 formal clarity—the patient observation, the refusal of score or manipulation—places this squarely in the direct cinema lineage while making a radical statement about ordinary life and agency; it's the kind of film that ages into its own critical tradition.
The genius move is Dion's decision to shoot the couple's daily movements without fastening onto them as spectacle—letting the camera stay steady, letting effort be effort—which transforms what could've been maudlin into something almost austere and true.