Los Angeles, CA, Feb. 4 – As the 2021 Sundance Film Festival closes its first virtual festival, I was excited to see a lot disability-themed content this year. One of my favorites was 4 Feet High, six short episodes from Sundance’s Indie Series program and four VR episodes from the New Frontier program. The series features Juani, a 17-year-old young woman who is a wheelchair user, played by Marisol Agostina Irigoyen, a real wheelchair user. [continue reading…]
Los Angeles, CA, Feb 3 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization committed to fighting stigma and advancing inclusion of people with disabilities, will host a webinar on Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. ET / 10:30 a.m. PT to release a new resource, “People with Disabilities at Work: A Resource Guide to Achieving Economic Independence and Inclusion Through Employment and Entrepreneurship.” To register for the webinar, visit: https://www.respectability.org/2020/12/economic-self-sufficiency-webinar.
The comprehensive guide, intended for youth and adults with disabilities, their families and advocates, covers topics ranging from transitioning from school to work to the importance of mentoring and networking in securing successful employment outcomes. [continue reading…]
Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
Los Angeles, Jan. 30 – A new short screening at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Forever, examines the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in determining the value of a life – including what happens when AI determines one may not live long.
In this animated short experimental film, a man named Mitchell, voiced by the writer/director Mitch McGlocklin, is denied life insurance due to “an advanced algorithm” processing his medical records, criminal background and social history, credit score and social media accounts, ultimately determining he is “too risky of a case.”
What follows is the protagonist narrating his reaction to the news. “I guess the AI thought I was going to die. When I thought of it that way, it hit me pretty hard because I have a lot of belief in AI. I see AI as not really an opinion. It seems like truth.” Ultimately, however, this character finds comfort in that he will live on forever in AI. [continue reading…]
Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
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 a somber reminder of the constant bureaucratic hurdles plaguing individuals with disabilities, who often rely on the caprices of insurance companies to survive. Anchored by the debut of lead actress Deanna Gibson, Wiggle Room turns the necessary evils of administration into an inescapable noose made of red tape hellbent on strangling our protagonist.
Premiering at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Wiggle Room’s plot is deceptively simple: a teenage paraplegic (Gibson) travels to her nearest insurance office to retrieve the reimbursement for a ramp her mom had installed in their home. However, in the tradition of social realism or Ken Loach (specifically I, Daniel Blake), Baylis and Guest stress to us that immediate compensation is not a luxury afforded to the downtrodden. Over a year has passed since the erection of the ramp and it is in danger of repossession unless the insurance company finally pays up. Our protagonist embarks on the hero’s journey via accessible van in order to slay the leviathan that is bureaucracy. [continue reading…]
Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 28 – With one-in-five people having a disability in the U.S. today, the lack of representation – just 2.3 percent of characters in the 100 top-grossing films of 2019 and 8 percent in family films – means that millions of people are unable to see themselves reflected in media.
The 2021 Sundance Film Festival (January 28 – February 3) will provide an opportunity for audiences with various disabilities to see themselves represented – all from the comfort of their homes through the virtual festival site. This year, several films feature disability in the plot, including CODA, Amy Tan, 4 Feet High, Forever and Wiggle Room, among others. [continue reading…]
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.
Moderated by Eileen Grubba, Filmmaker, Actress, and Disability Inclusion Advocate, the panel attracted “creatives, producers and technologists” at the forefront of establishing a more inclusive world, whether it be behind or in front of the camera or with technology to aid and assist people with disabilities. During the conversation, several advocates addressed the challenges facing people with disabilities in an inaccessible environment, along with trends and technologies ushering in a new era of unseen inclusion. [continue reading…]
It has been said that “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” The COVID pandemic has certainly posed tremendous vocational challenges for people with disabilities, who, despite already experiencing an employment rate less than half of people without disabilities, experienced 40% greater job loss with minimal recovery. It has also provided unprecedented opportunities—to develop skills, to continue working from home and in person (for those who currently have jobs) and to think creatively about new opportunities.
Many people with disabilities and organizations working with them have responded swiftly and creatively. Participants and families in our National Ramah Tikvah Network vocational training programs, located in our 10 Ramah camps in the US and Canada, expressed concerns about social isolation and job skills. In response, we swiftly created TikvahNET, a vocational training and socialization program. [continue reading…]
Los Angeles, Jan. 14 – A new report by GLAAD shows a slight uptick in the percentage of series regular characters with a disability on broadcast scripted series to 3.5 percent for the 2020-2021 season, up from 3.1 percent. This represents a 12.9 percent increase. However, while the percentage showed improvement, the number of characters (27) remained the same from 2019-2020 to 2020-2021.
While increased representation should be celebrated, it also is important to note that, as stated in the GLAAD report, “this number continues to severely underrepresent the actual U.S. population living with disabilities,” as more than twenty percent of people in the U.S. have a disability. [continue reading…]
Additional panelists added Friday, January 22, 2021
Los Angeles, Jan. 14, 2021 – The disability advocacy organization RespectAbility announces The Accessibility and Inclusion Lab – a virtual lineup of Sundance Film Festival events taking place on a digital Main Street.
As an official organization of the Sundance Institute’s Allied Organization Initiative since 2018, RespectAbility works with the Institute year-round to ensure disability and accessibility awareness, equity and inclusion. Led by diverse people with disabilities, RespectAbility’s Hollywood Team partners with studios and writers’ rooms to create equitable and accessible opportunities to increase the number of people with lived disability experience throughout the overall story-telling process. These initiatives increase diverse and authentic representation of disabled people on screen, leading to systemic change in how people view and value people with disabilities.
RespectAbility will be hosting five conversations on various disability-related subjects throughout the festival, two of which are in collaboration with Film Independent, a nonprofit arts organization that champions the independent filmmaker, helps filmmakers make their movies, build an audience for their projects and work to diversify the film industry. [continue reading…]
Ali Stroker as Detective Allison Mulaney
Los Angeles, Jan. 14 – If you had told me that CBS’ decade-long cop show, Blue Bloods, would tackle the issue of disability employment, I would have assumed you were from a parallel universe, but here we are.
In the episode properly titled “Redemption,” Blue Bloods introduces Detective Allison Mulaney, a feisty and well decorated detective paralyzed from the waist down due to an injury sustained in the line of duty. Mulaney is portrayed by Tony award-winning Broadway star Ali Stroker. Stroker’s first critical success came in 2019 when she won a Tony for best supporting actress for her role in Oklahoma! making her the first woman in a wheelchair to win a Tony. [continue reading…]
