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Hollywood Inclusion

80th Golden Globe Awards: Disability-Inclusive Nominees

80th Golden Globe Awards logoAfter grappling with a lot of diversity, equity, and inclusion issues throughout the past few years, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globes will return to television this Tuesday, January 10, 2023. While the majority of films and television shows do not include any disability inclusion, it is important to note that several disability-inclusive films and television series have been nominated.

One-in-four adults having a disability in the U.S. today, but the lack of representation – just 3.5 percent of characters on TV and 2.3 percent on film – means that millions of people are unable to see themselves in media today. This makes it so important that several of the nominations this year feature disabled individuals.

Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu in Everything Everywhere All at OnceOf all the Best Picture nominees, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is the only film to include disability in the plot. Evelyn Wang, played by Michelle Yeoh, was confirmed by Daniel Kwan, one-half of the writer/director team “Daniels,” to have undiagnosed ADHD. Kwan set out to write a lead character with undiagnosed ADHD, which he felt would add to the external and internal chaos in the film. Through his research of ADHD traits, Kwan felt a sense of familiarity and ended up getting diagnosed with ADHD himself. [continue reading…]

Alys Murray: RespectAbility Entertainment Lab Alum Pushing for Diversity in Christmas Movies

Alys Murray headshot

Alys Murray

RespectAbility Entertainment Lab alumna Alys Murray had two Christmas films – A New Orleans Noel and My Southern Family Christmas – premiere last week.

Murray, who started out as a novelist, says that screenwriting is less lonely than writing novels because it is more collaborative. “There is a lot less crying” involved in screenwriting because she does not have to be alone with her thoughts, and she has others to “bounce ideas off of.” [continue reading…]

Studio Executives Share Tips on How to Advance in the Industry

Los Angeles, CA, Oct 21 – Some of the success behind the RespectAbility Entertainment Lab’s ability to help place its alumni in positions of employment is the Lab’s support from a variety of studios. As such, throughout the Lab, executives from DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros Discovery shared tips with the virtual cohort Lab Fellows on how to advance within the entertainment industry. [continue reading…]

Charo Mato: Celebrating Diversity within Deafness and Disability

Charo Mato headshot

Charo Mato

New York, NY, October 6 – Charo Mato is an Argentinian filmmaker with hearing loss who graduated from the Image and Sound Design career in the University of Buenos Aires. She was a fellow of the Sundance Documentary Film Program with her first documentary film 8 Stories About My Hearing Loss, which premiered at 9° FIDBA and won Best Film at 9° Construir Cine. The film has premiered at the Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival (FIDBA), Santiago de Chile IFF (SANFIC), Vancouver IFF (VIFF) and won best film at the Construir Cine – Festival Internacional de Cine Sobre el Trabajo (International Labour Film Festival). She is also a recent graduate of the 2022 RespectAbility Entertainment Lab for Professionals with Disabilities.

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month and the recent World Day of The Deaf, which was celebrated on September 26, I interviewed Charo about her recent film and her artistry in relationship to her multiple identities. [continue reading…]

En Español: Entrevista a Charo Mato

Charo Mato headshot

Charo Mato

Charo Mato es una cineasta argentina con pérdida auditiva. Se graduó de la carrera de Diseño de Imagen y Sonido en la Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Fue becaria del Programa de Cine Documental de Sundance con su primer documental 8 cuentos sobre mi hipoacusia, que se estrenó en el 9° FIDBA y ganó el premio de “Mejor Película” en el 9° Construir Cine. También es graduada del Laboratorio de entretenimiento RespectAbility 2022 para profesionales con discapacidades. Su película se ha estrenado en el Festival Internacional de Cine Documental de Buenos Aires (FIDBA), Santiago de Chile IFF (SANFIC), Vancouver IFF (VIFF) y ganó el premio a mejor película en Construir Cine – Festival Internacional de Cine Sobre el Trabajo. [continue reading…]

Isabella Vargas: “Education and Representation are Crucial”

Isabella Vargas headshot

Isabella Vargas

New York, NY, October 6 – As part of RespectAbility’s reflection on Hispanic History Month, I interviewed Isabella Vargas, an apprentice in RespectAbility’s Entertainment and News Media department. She is an advocate for the disabled community and strives to bring more representation of Hispanic/Latinx/Latine people in the entertainment industry.

According to data from the Annual Disability Statistics Compendium, there are 3,420,356 working-age Hispanic/Latinx Americans with disabilities. Out of that number, 1,375,284 have jobs, putting their employment rate at 40.2 percent. At the same time, Hispanic/Latinx Americans without disabilities had an employment rate of 72.8 percent. That means there is a 32.8 percentage point gap in employment rates between Hispanic/Latinx people with and without disabilities.

These statistics are sadly amplified within the entertainment industry. According to the 2020 UCLA “Hollywood Diversity Report,” Latinos accounted for only 4.6% of movie roles in 2019. [continue reading…]

Prioritizing Accessibility in Film Production, Theaters, and Festivals

Ten headshots of panelists featured in article arranged in a grid.

Top Row (L-R): Kiah Amara, Asha Chai-Chang, Michele Spitz, Chris Snyder, Alex Howard
Bottom Row (L-R): Amanda Upson, Amber Espinosa-Jones, Isaac Zablocki, Juliet Romeo, Danielle Pretsfelder-Demchick

Los Angeles, Oct. 4 – Throughout the RespectAbility Entertainment Lab, Fellows participated in a variety of panels and workshops focused on accessibility, a topic of major importance to both the Lab and the disability community as a whole. The conversations were run by industry professionals, many of whom are disabled themselves. The panelists covered topics including accessibility as a creative asset, audio description, accessible film festivals, and authentic and accessible casting. [continue reading…]

Growing Up’s Emily Flores Shows Importance of Gaining Power by Telling Our Own Stories

Emily Flores and Director Ashley Eakin smile together at the premiere for Growing UpLos Angeles, Sept 22 – Growing Up episode four follows Emily Flores, a woman born with muscular dystrophy, navigating adolescence and young adulthood with a disability. The episode, which is a part of a Disney+ series that highlights stories about notable young people from underrepresented backgrounds, tells the story of how a young Flores founded Cripple Media, an online publication for disabled writers to tell their own stories.

The episode starts by showing a group of young people sitting in a circle – group therapy-style – with Flores discussing her story, saying she “let people have assumptions about [her]” regarding her disability. These assumptions, according to Flores, include that disability is a tragedy and disabled people are a monolith. Bombarded by these assumptions, Flores often felt alienated and powerless while growing up. [continue reading…]

Entertainment Lab Panels Teach the Art of Pitching

Los Angeles, Sept 21 – The process of making a creative project requires many steps from writing and editing drafts, to finding the right creative partner and securing funding. To help guide them in this layered and arduous process, RespectAbility’s Entertainment Lab provides disabled creatives with mentorship, industry insight, and networking opportunities in all facets of the entertainment industry. Recently, Lab Fellows learned the ropes of the vital yet intimidating step: pitching.

In the session, “The Art of Pitching,” Fanshen Cox stressed the importance of sharing one’s own journey in a pitch. As a storyteller, Cox advised participants to think about experiences that they want to share and tell a story. “When you’re going into a pitch, you want to do everything to make sure you feel confident.” [continue reading…]

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