Los Angeles, Feb. 10 – During this year’s 2021 Sundance Film Festival, many panels were hosted that detailed the ongoing changes surrounding disability and the industry. Of the many panels hosted, “The Nuts & Bolts of Producing Deaf Content & Working with Deaf Performers” directly emphasized the successes and work of deaf and hard [click to continue...]
Los Angeles, Jan. 30 – Paraphrasing Franz Kafka, philosopher Slavoj Žižek once said, “For a modern, secular non-religious man, state bureaucracy is the only remaining contact with the dimension of the Divine.” Inspired by the events of the filmmakers’ friend, the short film Wiggle Room, written and directed by Julia Baylis and Sam Guest, is [click to continue...]
Los Angeles, January 21 – As the entertainment industry continues to intentionally include creatives with disabilities, The Television Academy is playing a part in educating their members. Through the Interactive Media Peer Group, Academy members discussed the importance of and the impact that disability in media has in molding public perceptions of the disability identity. [click to continue...]
With one-in-five people having a disability in the U.S. today, the lack of representation – just 3.1 percent on-screen and even less in children’s television (less than one percent) – means that millions of people are unable to see themselves in media today. The national disability advocacy nonprofit RespectAbility has been honored to play [click to continue...]
Los Angeles, CA, Dec. 9 – In recent years there has been a bevy of films exploring the idiosyncrasies of dating while disabled. Rarely do these films accurately capture the nuances involved with sex and disability. Alive, written and directed by Jimmy Olsson, is a refreshing short that captures essential yet unseen aspects of interabled [click to continue...]
Roque Renteria has performed stand-up comedy on Comedy Central and Amazon Prime. He graduated from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television with an MFA in Screenwriting.
