Disability Studies: Videos

"The School Experience features classroom action in mainstream primary and secondary schools, satellite classes and a special school."

"Deaf Jam is the story of deaf teen Aneta Brodski's bold journey into the spoken word slam scene. In a wondrous twist, Aneta, an Israeli immigrant living in the Queens section of New York City, eventually meets Tahani, a hearing Palestinian slam poet. The two women embark on a collaboration/performance duet creating a new form of slam poetry that speaks to both the hearing and the Deaf."

"After spending his early years in foster care, without access to language, DJ Savarese (“Deej”) found not only a loving family but also a life in words, which he types on a text-to-voice synthesizer. As he dreams of college, he confronts the terrors of his past, society’s obstacles to inclusion and the often-paralyzing beauty of his own senses. In this first-of-its-kind collaboration between a veteran filmmaker and a nonspeaking autistic, Robert Rooy and DJ share editorial control as they navigate the challenges of representing autism. DEEJ is a story told from the inside, not by parents or 'experts'."

Featuring interviews and rarely seen archival footage, the film reveals how these activists fought to live outside of institutions, challenged the stigmas and negative image of disability portrayed by the media, demanded access to public transportation, and battled to reframe disability rights as a social responsibility relevant to us all.

Fixed: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement, explores the social impact of human biotechnologies. Haunting and humorous, poignant and political, Fixed rethinks "disability" and "normalcy" by exploring technologies that promise to change our bodies and minds forever.

A documentary film about empowering children with disabilities in Los Angeles

Before his son Samuel was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, photojournalist Dan Habib rarely thought about the inclusion of people with disabilities. Now he thinks about inclusion every day. Shot and produced over four years, Habib's award-winning documentary film chronicles the Habib family's efforts to include Samuel in every facet of their lives.

Invitation to Dance is an eye-opening insider's account of disability in 21st century America. Simi Linton's story forms the narrative backbone of the documentary. The film traces both her personal growth as a disabled woman, and the larger historically significant developments around her over the past 40 years.

"An award-winning documentary about disability, caregiving and interdependence. THE KEY OF G tells the story of Gannet, a 22-year-old man with severe disabilities, as he prepares to move out of his mother's home and into a San Francisco apartment with three musicians and artists as primary caregivers."

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT documents the history of Jerry's Orphans and three consecutive years of their local Chicago Telethon protests. The film contrasts outdated attitudes with a view into the real lives of people with disabilities today. The goal of THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT is to raise consciousness about the subtle effects of pity, to empower people with disabilities to advocate for their own rights, and to inspire activism.

"explores the richness and complexities of Deaf culture from the perspective of two Korean high school students who attend the California School for the Deaf, Fremont."

"Four-year-old Violet, teenaged Nicholas and adult Paula occupy different positions on the autism spectrum, but they are all at pivotal moments in their lives. How they and the people around them work out their perceptual and behavioral differences becomes a remarkable reflection of the "neurotypical" world -- the world of the non-autistic -- revealing inventive adaptations on each side and an emerging critique of both what it means to be normal and what it means to be human."

"'There is no right or wrong body of a conscious revolutionary mind.'

Sins Invalid witnesses a performance project that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and queer and gender-variant artists. Since 2006, its performances have explored themes of sexuality, beauty, and the disabled body, impacting thousands through live performance. Sins Invalid is as an entryway into the absurdly taboo topic of sexuality and disability, manifesting a new paradigm of disability justice."

Sound and Fury takes viewers inside the seldom seen world of the deaf to witness a painful family struggle over a controversial medical technology called the cochlear implant. Some family members celebrate the implant as a long overdue cure for deafness while others fear it will destroy their language and way of life.

In this follow up film, Heather Artinian and her two brothers have received cochlear implants. Her speech is now understandable. She attends a mainstream school. She can function in the hearing world. Her father, who initially opposed the implant, now says that he sees how useful implants can be for deaf children, and how glad he is that his children have them.

"Take a journey into the rich sensory experience of autism. Imagine a world where words taste and thoughts feel, where sounds swell with color and leaves on trees change tones visible to the naked eye, and where eye contact with another can cause physical pain.

SPECTRUM explores autism through the lens of diverse characters on the spectrum. The documentary aired on PBS stations nationwide for Autism Awareness Month."

"TWITCH AND SHOUT provides an intimate journey into the startling world of Tourette Syndrome (TS) told through the eyes of a photojournalist with TS.

An emotionally absorbing, sometimes unsettling, and ultimately uplifting film about people who must contend with a society that often sees them as crazy or bad--and a body and mind that won't do what it's told. Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a genetic disorder that can cause a bizarre range of involuntary movements, obscene vocalizations and compulsions."

Since he was 6 years old, Jeff Daly kept asking that question. When his sister Molly was not yet 3 years old, she was taken from their 'perfect' home, never to return.

"In Wretches and Jabberers, two men with autism embark on a global quest to change attitudes about disability and intelligence. Determined to put a new face on autism, Tracy Thresher, 42, and Larry Bissonnette, 52, travel to Sri Lanka, Japan and Finland. At each stop, they dissect public attitudes about autism and issue a hopeful challenge to reconsider competency and the future."