Dance Me to My Song

Julia, who has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and speaks through a voice synthesiser. The woman employed to care for her has hemmed her in psychologically; belittling, stalling and threat have become part of daily life. Meeting a man who comes to the house sets Julia questioning what she has put up with for years. The film does not offer Julia as an inspiring example and does not ask for pity; it shows her as someone who wants, who gets angry and who decides. The account does not shorten the slowness of speech built through the device but leaves that time as it is. The imbalance of power inside a relationship of care is the film’s real subject. Heather Rose and Joey Kennedy appear in Rolf de Heer’s hundred and one minute Australian film, completed in 1998.