The Disney Company's massive success in the 20th century is based on creating an image of innocence, magic and fun. Its animated films in particular are almost universally lauded as wholesome family entertainment, enjoying massive popularity among children and endorsement from parents and teachers.
takes a close and critical look at the world these films create and the stories they tell about race, gender and class and reaches disturbing conclusions about the values propagated under the guise of innocence and fun. This daring new video insightfully analyzes Disney's cultural pedagogy, examines its corporate power, and explores its vast influence on our global culture. Including interviews with cultural critics, media scholars, child psychologists, kindergarten teachers, multicultural educators, college students and children,
will provoke audiences to confront comfortable assumptions about an American institution that is virtually synonymous with childhood pleasure.
Sections: Disney's Media Dominance | Disney's Gender Representations | Disney's Race Representations | Disney's Commercialization of Children's Culture
Discussion Guide
Transcript
Filmmaker Info
Producer, Writer: Chyng Feng Sun
Director, Co-Producer: Miguel Picker
Editor, Camera, Graphics, Music, Audio: Miguel Picker
An ArtMedia Production
Educational Distribution by the Media Education Foundation
Filmmaker's Bios
CHYNG SUN | Director, Producer & Writer
Dr. Chyng Sun is a filmmaker and a Clinical Associate Professor of Media
Studies at McGhee Liberal Arts, School of Continuing and Professional
Studies at New York University. Her research interests include media
literacy; race, gender and sexuality in media; and audience
research/media effects. With Miguel Picker, Sun produced the
documentaries
The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality, and Relationships and
Beyond Good and Evil: Media, Children and Violent Times (both distributed by the Media Education Foundation).
MIGUEL PICKER | Producer, Director & Editor
Miguel Picker worked at WGBH-TV in Boston for over 15 years as an editor. His editing credits include
La Plaza,
Greater Boston Arts, and a 52-part national series titled
Destinos. He also has produced and directed programs for WGBH, including
Como Hacemos,
Duo, and
The Early Music Workshop. He has produced and directed numerous independent projects as well, such as
Francisco Mendez - The Portrayal of a Cuban Painter and
A Day in Martha's Vineyard.
Picker is also a musician and composer, and has worked with a wide
range of art institutions and public foundations, including PBS, the
Boston Ballet and the New England Conservatory. Picker moved to New York
City in the summer of 2004, and his recent projects include editing and
music composition/production for the award-winning documentary
The Borinqueneers (2007), and co-directing and editing
Ulises' Odyssey (2009), a documentary on Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile in 1970's and its aftermath.
Film Festivals
Black Point Film Festival | Lake Geneva, WI | April 2002
East Lansing Film Festival | East Lansing, MI | March 2002
The Milky Way | Jamaica Plain, MA | October 2001
Zeitgeist Gallery | Cambridge, MA | June 2001
Visualized: Messages in Motion Film Festival | Denver, CO | November 2001
