GLAD 20 YEARS - Flipbook - Page 7
Mentally
Disabled
and Excluded
”My sister is mentally retarded. While we grew up, I always wondered why she and her friends
were excluded. They were bullied and had nowhere to go or hang out. And no one listened to them.
While studying at Roskilde University Centre, along with fellow student Peter Bloch, I created the
film ‘Pernille’ about her life and role in our family and in society in general. The film became an eyeopener to both staff and relatives of people with cognitive disabilities,” says Henrik Marentius on
his motivation for co-founding TV-Glad.
“Later, I was chair at Vesterbro Local TV, which cooperated with Vesterbro Video Workshop
where Mikkel worked. Both were located at Vesterbro’s Lyrskovgade. We often talked about how
people with cognitive challenges relate to most things much as the rest of us do, but they are never
heard or asked. We had to do something to safeguard their freedom of expression. Several people
with mental disabilities participated in our activities.
Mikkel Holmbäck also clearly remembers the beginning: “Journalists generally approached the
target group as cute or sweet, or someone to feel sorry for and who weren’t capable of anything.
This is how they were presented, all very well intended. Anyone was welcome to attend Vesterbro
Video Workshop. They could simply walk in the door and try their hand at video production, and
we had good results with this approach. Henrik was about to renew the broadcasting license for
Vesterbro Local TV, and we felt it made sense to try and apply for a separate license for a station
for people with disabilities. Why not give them a voice? We wanted to do things differently; show
that everyone is good at something,” says Mikkel Holmbäck.
The constitutional right to freedom of expression would be the TV stations signature.
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