A teenager with autism turns to dance as a way to better express himself.
Archives
Marina’s Ocean
A teen with Down Syndrome visits the sea for the first time.
I Don’t Want to Go Back Alone
A 15 year-old blind teenager and his best friend face issues of jealousy and other new
feelings when they befriend a new kid in their class.
Intimacy
A first date between a deaf woman and a blind man, experienced through their alternating perspectives.
Filmmaker Bio
Ryan and Jackson Hogan are part-time film-makers and full-time brothers living in Leyton, East London. Ryan studied Film and Literature at the University of Warwick, and has since pursued a career in screenwriting while freelancing in film and television post-production. He mostly writes. Jackson studied Film at the University of Kent, and has since made a living shooting music videos, commercials, and live events. He mostly shoots. Their previous directorial efforts include Fishbowl (2016), The Laytons (2012) and Working Lunch (2011).
I Don’t Care
A mother-to-be faces the possibility of having a child with Down syndrome.
Have No Fear
A day in the life of an elderly Alzheimer’s patient, experiencing nearly everything for the first time, including his own descent into dementia.
Defiant Lives
Weaving together never-before-seen archival footage with reflective interviews and the personal stories of men and women with disabilities, Defiant Lives details the rise of the disability rights movement in Australia, the U.K., and the U.S.
Filmmaker Bio
Sarah Barton is a filmmaker with more than 20 years experience and has focused mainly on making films about disability. Her first major film, Untold Desires (1994) about sexuality and disability, won the first Logie Award for SBS television and an AFI Award for most outstanding documentary. In 2003 Sarah created and produced the first 70 episodes of the award winning disability community television series No Limits. Sarah’s short documentary Stroke A Chord (2012) about a choir of stroke survivors who can sing but not speak was a finalist in the ATOM Awards in 2013. Between 2011 and 2015, Sarah worked as Chief Executive Officer of Disability Media Australia an organization she co-founded in 2005. She also returned to No Limits in the role of Executive Producer mentoring and training disabled producers, cast and crew. In 2015 Sarah returned to her production company Fertile Films to complete Defiant Lives and recently launched an online video distribution platform DisabilityBusters.com
Hearts of Glass – A Vertical Farm Takes Root in Wyoming
This film follows the tumultuous first 15 months of the operating of Vertical Harvest (VH), a state-of-the-art hydroponic greenhouse that provides local crops as well as employment for people with disabilities. Plants and people grow together in this intimate portrait of innovation, inclusion, and community.
Perfectly Normal For Me
At a unique after school dance program in Queens, kids with a variety of physical and developmental challenges pair with teenage volunteer helpers to create an inclusive environment too often absent in our world.
Filmmaker Bio
Catherine Tambini is an award-winning filmmaker who lives in NYC. Her directing and producing credits include Sundance Film Festival award winner and Independent Spirit Award nominee Farmingville (PBS’s POV); Academy Award®-nominee Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse (PBS’s Great Performances/Dance in America); CINE Golden Eagle Award winner and Imagen Award nominee The State of Arizona (PBS’s Independent Lens); Hate Rising With Jorge Ramos (HBO & Univision) for which she received the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s Impact Award for Outstanding Documentary; and Art and Heart: The World of Isaiah Sheffer, which premiered at the New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center. Ms. Tambini is the recipient of many grants including multiple grants from the Sundance Institute and the MacArthur Foundation. She holds a BFA from the University of Oklahoma and an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Bottom Dollars
The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act created the revolutionary workers’ rights protection: the minimum wage. Yet as the film uncovers, Section 14(c) still provides a terrible and abusive exemption that allows employers to pay “special minimum wages”—wages less than the Federal minimum wage—“to workers who have disabilities.”
