Changing

Changing Stereotypes

Through Film and Art

In conversation with Dagmar Bennet

Dagmar Bennet is a sculptor and creative living in London. Having moved from Wales to study figurative sculpture her interest in inclusion and equality was piqued when she came across British actor Adam Pearson who has neurofibromatosis. Seeing the work he was doing as a disability advocate and his aim of raising awareness was something she found inspirational. She reached out to Adam, and asked if she could produce a hyper realistic bust of him for her final college project, their friendship blossomed from there.

"I saw that Adam had been doing a lot of work on the telly, I literally just reached out to him on Twitter saying I want to do a project with you, I want to do this sculpture of you. We met up and Adam was very specific, and only wanted to work with people who are passionate about the cause. I ended up working quite closely with him for a year, getting to know him, we spent a lot of time together and we formed a really strong relationship." A lot of Dagmar’s work centres on breaking down barriers within society, and challenging how people view others who might be different to them. "I think I saw him as a little bit of a muse because he was doing a lot, trying to change how people think. He was very much an advocate and I got inspired by his work." Currently, she is working in equality, diversity and inclusion for Brixton Finishing School, and helping underrepresented talent get into the creative industries. Dagmar is passionate about giving people a voice and helping them to achieve their potential within society.

Image courtesy of Dagmar Bennet

Image courtesy of Dagmar Bennet

Neurofibromatoses

is the umbrella term for a group of three genetic conditions; (Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2) and Schwannomatosis).

The condition causes tumours to grow on nerve endings, the tumors in NF are generally non-cancerous and their location, and other associated issues, depend on the type of NF. For more information visit:

Nerve Tumours UK | Home | Nerve Tumours UK https://www.nervetumours.org.uk For more information on Dagmar’s workplace head to the Briston Finishing School website: Free Online and In-person Courses | Brixton Finishing School https://brixtonfinishingschool.org/ To find out more about Dagmar and her work you can visit her web page here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/differencefilm?member=21422329&utm_campaign=p_cp+sharesheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer

The latest project Dagmar is working on is a short fashion documentary film, also featuring Adam, called Difference. The aim of the project is to keep raising awareness and to challenge society’s views, breaking down barriers for people with disfigurements. "At the moment, I’m currently fundraising for it with a Kickstarter page. I have got an amazing producer involved, who does fashion and creative work on music videos. It will be very theatrical. We’re in the very early stages but looking to film it next spring. It’s going to be filmed in London and the location that we’re using was the largest prefab estate in the UK. So essentially, it was built after World War Two to house people who’d been bombed and lost their homes. The actual location stands for a lot within British history, as it is a bit of a symbol of community and how we can come together and help each other."

Using a mix of high street and high-end British fashion is the film’s goal, highlighting that encouraging diversity within fashion campaigns does work, and hopefully making the industry think more about who they might use for future campaigns. Opening up conversations and dialogue in society as a whole is an important part of her work for Dagmar, and her upcoming projects will build upon this as she feels that there is a long way to go to try achieve inclusion for all, especially within the fashion world. For Dagmar understanding the difficulties that underrepresented communities can face within society also comes from personal insight. "My uncle’s disabled and my mum cares for him and I think a lot of people don’t really understand the kind of barriers that people with disabilities might face. This could also be said of gender or race and the barriers there. So for example, if you’ve got facial disfigurement, it could be really difficult to get a job. It could be really difficult to get housing just because others might perceive you in a certain light. So there are a lot of barriers that other people don’t really realise that they go through." Ultimately Dagmar wants to break down stereotypes that are still prevalant in today’s society, fighting for more equality and making things a lot more equal within society and especially in the creative industries.

Image courtesy of Dagmar Bennet