In celebration of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), Delta Air Lines is featuring seven disability-inclusive films in a Top Picks collection on their seatback, in-flight entertainment. Six of these films were written and/or directed by Disabled filmmakers, and all include Disabled individuals in front of the camera. In addition, these films are available with captions and audio description, creating accessibility for viewers who are deaf and/or blind.
“As both an executive producer of Being Michelle and Vice Chair of RespectAbility, which has worked on some of the projects included in the Delta Studio NDEAM Top Picks collection, I am excited for the world to experience entertainment with powerful disability perspectives told through a lens in which disabled persons had a direct hand in creating both behind and in front of the camera,” said RespectAbility Vice Chair Delbert Whetter, who is a deaf filmmaker based in Los Angeles.
Uplifting and amplifying stories by disabled filmmakers is vital due to the disproportionately low representation of disability in the entertainment industry both in front of and behind the camera. In a recent study by USC Annenberg, only 1.9% of all speaking characters in the top 100 grossing films of 2022 were portrayed as disabled, an incredibly small number compared to the 27% of the U.S. population that is Disabled.
By showcasing this collection, Delta Air Lines is helping to change these statistics. The collection includes:
Being Michelle
Being Michelle is an award-winning feature-length documentary film telling the story of a Deaf woman with autism and her journey healing from abuse, ableism, and incarceration through art. The film sheds light on the injustices often faced by Disabled people in the prison system and conveys the feelings of isolation all too common for Disabled folks living in an inaccessible world.
“On behalf of the Being Michelle documentary film team, we are thrilled to be a part of the six films currently streaming across the U.S. skies in honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2023 and curated by the Delta Disability Advisory board and our partner organization, RespectAbility,” said Producer Mae Thornton Mehra. “We hope that Michelle’s story will encourage viewers to join in the fight to ensure the basic human right to communication for Deaf and Disabled people in the criminal justice system and beyond. We are all stronger together.”
Being Michelle was executive produced by RespectAbility board Vice Chair Delbert Whetter, and associate produced by RespectAbility 2021 Entertainment Lab alumnus Harold Foxx. Both identifying as Deaf, Whetter and Foxx’s lived experiences were invaluable to crafting an authentically told story. Read More: Being Michelle RespectAbility Review (April 2022, Dennis Tran)
Uncomplicated
Written and directed by Juliet Romeo, a Black filmmaker with sickle cell disease, Uncomplicated is a short romance film about dating with chronic illness. The film follows Claire, a young woman with sickle cell as she attempts to hide her illness from her blind date Paul. But when Claire loses her phone, her literal lifeline, Claire and Paul find themselves on an adventure that results in bringing Claire’s illness into the open. Through Claire’s dating experience, she finds strength in accepting herself, chronic illness and all. Uncomplicated centers disability by featuring talent with sickle cell disease both in front of and behind the camera.
“During the production, it was important to me to have inclusive and accessible set locations,” said disabled writer/director, and RespectAbility 2021 Entertainment Lab alumna, Juliet Romeo. “I also hired actors, musicians, and music composers with sickle cell. Representation in front of the camera and behind the camera was important for me to showcase.”
Combatting the stereotypes all too common in often inauthentically told portrayals of chronic illness in the media, Uncomplicated reflects the reality that chronically ill people can and do date. Read More: “Uncomplicated” Review: Dating with a Chronic Illness (April 2023, Emily Tironi)
Eternals
Marvel’s Eternals is an action/superhero feature film where immortal beings with superhuman powers who have secretly lived on Earth for thousands of years come together to battle the evil Deviants. Eternals is a landmark movie for disability representation, with the emergence of the first-ever Deaf superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Makkari.
Lauren Ridloff, the actor who plays Makkari, shared in an interview with Hollywood Reporter, the significance of the Deaf representation in Eternals, explaining that, “we need a superhero that represents us” because “growing up, I didn’t dream of becoming an actor because I didn’t see enough of myself on the screen. I didn’t get to dream that big, so now, with the Eternals, I’m hoping that more people will be able to dream bigger.”
While this film was not written or directed by someone identifying as Disabled, several RespectAbility team members worked on this film to ensure authentic disability representation and accessible viewing opportunities. Read More: Case Study: Building Upon a Partnership to Advance Accessibility and Long-Term Change with Marvel Studios (December 2021, Delbert Whetter)
Inspire Me
2023 Slamdance Film Festival Selection Inspire Me is a short comedic documentary exploring “inspiration porn,” a term disability activist and comedian Stella Young used to describe the phenomenon where nondisabled folks view disability as so tragic that simply living with disability is heroic. Written by Disabled comedian Madeleine Stewart, Inspire Me follows her journey training to be a Paralympian in an attempt to be “the most inspiring Disabled person ever.” The short film features Disabled Paralympians Jonathan Goerlach and Ellie Cole, as well as writer and disability advocate Hannah Diviney.
In an article for Screen New South Wales, Stewart shares that she hopes Disabled audiences will connect with her journey and experiences “feeling like a ‘bad disabled person’ for not being inspirational.” Stewart’s message to Disabled folks is that “you are enough and amazing as you are.” And to nondisabled folks, Stewart hopes Inspire Me makes people both laugh and “think about why they find people with disability so inspiring.”
Roommates
Selected for both SXSW and Slamdance Film Festival 2022, Roommates is a short comedy film about two Disabled freshman roommates who go from strangers to friends on one adventurous, wild, and a little chaotic college night. Roommates brings desperately needed disability representation to the iconic college experience so commonly depicted in movies and TV. Starring Disabled actor Kiera Allen and co-writer Kelsey Johnson, Roommates features authentically cast Disabled characters.
“I love that Roommates is now available to a wide range of audiences, because it’s a film that celebrates disabled joy,” said disabled writer, director, and 2020 RespectAbility Lab alumna, Ashley Eakin. “Showing the good parts of the disabled experience is something that society needs to see more of.”
Roommates explores common fears Disabled people grapple with when entering a new and potentially inaccessible environment, while ultimately emphasizing that Disabled college freshmen face the same fear of the unknown as their nondisabled peers, and they are just as capable of conquering those fears in exchange for a keg and some togas. Read More: Roommates RespectAbility Review (March 2022, Lesley Hennen)
Take Me Home
Take Me Home is a short drama film telling the story of a cognitively disabled woman and her estranged sister as they learn to communicate in the wake of their mother’s death. Authentically cast, the 2023 Sundance and SXSW selection film stars Anna Sargent a woman with cognitive and physical disabilities. The film explores the intersectionality of disability, the AAPI community, and caregiving. Anna’s sister, and Take Me Home’s writer, Liz Sargent, shares with RespectAbility the significance of this film both for her own community and wider audiences.
“It’s important to me to share this film with my disability, adoptee, and Asian community, but I don’t want the film to exist within a bubble,” Sargent said. “The goal is to bring a very specific point of view and a grounded dimensional cognitively disabled character to new audiences. This is the dream – to have someone discover this film in a moment of quiet reflection, in the air, and be emotionally moved to think about my sister Anna and how we care about those who can no longer care for themselves.”
Read More: Take Me Home RespectAbility Review (January 2023, Jeremy Hsing)
Thriving: A Dissociated Reverie
Screened at the 2023 Sundance Festival, Thriving: A Dissociated Reverie is a short drama film following a Black, nonbinary, artist, and sex worker on their journey from diagnosis to acceptance of dissociative identity disorder (DID). Co-written, co-produced, and performed by RespectAbility 2023 Entertainment Lab alumni Kitoko Mai, the film dispels misconceptions about DID that have been perpetuated by inauthentically told Hollywood films of the past. Using surrealism, humor, and vulnerability Thriving: A Dissociated Reverie invites the audience into the life and origin story of Mai’s alters, promoting acceptance and support for the previously stigmatized mental illness.
Mai provides an honest look into a world that shows the hardship, but also Mai’s mental strength, stating that it’s “exhausting, sometimes I’m barely surviving.” What helps Mai survive is a full acceptance of DID and the tools used to make the world more accessible: “Collaborating with my disability means working with the conditions I have – not against them.”
“Dissociative Identity Disorder has been grossly misrepresented in film, especially in horror, since Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Mai said. “The inclusion of Thriving: A Dissociated Reverie is important because it adds a racialized, queer, non-binary voice to the dominant dissociated discourse. It’s an authentic and hopeful take about moving from surviving to thriving in collaboration with your conditions, capacity, and creativity.”
Read More: Thriving: A Dissociated Reverie RespectAbility Review (February 2023, Isabella Vargas)
Looking Toward the Future
“With the most recent statistics showing that just 1.9% of all speaking characters in 100 of the top-grossing films in 2022 were shown as disabled, this Delta Studio NDEAM Top Picks collection is immensely important in helping to showcase disabled characters on screen,” said Lauren Appelbaum, RespectAbility’s SVP of Entertainment and News Media. “Not only do these seven films include disabled characters, but these films authentically cast disabled actors. Furthermore, each of these films had disabled individuals working behind the camera to ensure true authenticity and representation. These seven films tell authentic and intersectional stories about disability that are needed in society today.”
Currently, there are no studies reporting on behind-the-camera talent, such as writers and directors. This is likely because many studios and production companies do not track this information. This also reflects gaps in inclusive and accessible work environments, and hiring processes that create barriers for disabled writers and directors. One way to continue developing and elevating Disabled talent is through RespectAbility’s annual Entertainment Lab and bi-annual Entertainment and News Media Fellowship. As such, four of the films in this collection were created by Lab alumni. As more disabled writers and directors receive opportunities to create their own projects, more authentic and intersectional disability representation will appear on our screens.
