Three pioneering young American adults with intellectual disabilities challenge perceptions of intelligence as they navigate education and the workforce. The film challenges what it means to be intelligent, and points to a future in which people of all abilities can fully participate in higher education, meaningful employment, and intimate relationships.
Copresented by Matan
Director/Producer Dan Habib and his son Samuel Habib will discuss the film at the 10 am and 4:30 pm screenings on Sunday, April 7th. The Habibs will be joined (via Skype) by Executive Producers Chris Cooper and Marianne Leone Cooper for the discussion following the 4:30 screening.
A young dancer struggles with her identity and growing up hearing in a deaf family.
Diego, a young circus artist, returns home and reunites with his brothers after their grandmother, América, falls from her bed. Diego is a dreamer who sees poetry and purpose in this tragedy. His dream of familial cohesion fades into reality as the brothers clash over money, communication, and the challenge of caring for América.
Film accessibility materials provided by Alliance Bernstein.
A young man diagnosed with schizophrenia decides to go off his medication fearing that side effects will override the drugs’ benefits. A powerful human drama that challenges perceptions about treating mental illness.
Copresented by NYWIFT.
The battle occuring in the mind of a young man with high-functioning autism as he engages in everyday conversation.
Filmmaker Jason DaSilva presents a healthcare crisis as he tries to be closer to his son who lives 2,000 miles away.
Three artists create a multimedia dance performance that amplifies the joy of wheeled movement.
Photographer credit: BRITT / Jay Newman
Children with OCD describe their experience while families and loved ones yearn for ways to help them.
Filmmaker Bios
Kelly Anderson (Director) directed My Brooklyn, a documentary about the hidden causes of gentrification that premiered at the Brooklyn Film Festival, where it won an Audience Award, had a three-week sold out run at ReRun Theater in Dumbo (programmed by IFP) and aired on America ReFramed. Kelly’s other films include Never Enough, about Americans’ relationships with their material possessions, which won an award for Creative Excellence at the Big Sky Documentary Festival. She also produced and directed Every Mother’s Son (with Tami Gold), about three mothers whose children were killed by law enforcement, which won the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, aired on POV and was nominated for an Emmy. Anderson and Gold also made Out At Work, which was at Sundance and on HBO. Kelly is a professor at Hunter College in New York City, and she is a recipient of the UFVA’s George C. Stoney Award for Outstanding Documentary Work.
Chris Baier (Producer) is an award-winning writer, creative director, and blogger. His advertising campaigns have been honored at Cannes Lions and the One Show. He has been featured in Adweek, Communication Arts and Lurzer’s Archive. Chris runs a support group for Parents of Children with OCD, is an «OCD guru» for Wisdo.com and overall OCD advocate across social media.
An animated exploration of misophonia, a disorder characterized by immense pain and agitation resulting from hearing common, everyday sounds.
Filmmaker Bio
Canadian-born animator and filmmaker, Gwyneth Christoffel, grew up in Nova Scotia and has been making films since 2009. Her short films and animations have screened hundreds of times in countries around the world: Croatia, China, India, Australia and the United States. Her first animation, Recipe for Love, earned her a full-tuition scholarship to attend the University of Advancing Technology in Arizona, where she graduated as valedictorian. She is now animating in her hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
An actor and disability consultant is asked to help a former child star prepare for his triumphant comeback in a likely award-bait role.
