Titles tagged "disability"

A New Color: The Art of Being
​Edythe Boone

Long before Black Lives Matter became a rallying cry, Edythe Boone embodied that truth as an artist, an educator, and a great-grandmother. When a personal tragedy ignites a national outcry, everything that Edythe has worked so tirelessly for is at stake.

ARTS

When are you an artist? And when are you an artist with a disability? This is the central question in ARTS, a film about possibilities, disabilities and the arts. ARTS delves into a passionate world of painting, film, drama, writing, dance, music, film, and other creative mediums through interviews with internationally recognized luminaries, including Temple Grandin, Stephen Shore, Stephen Wiltshire, Donna Williams, Jerry and Mary Newport, Geri Jewell, Elaine Hall, and Taylor Cross, among other young and emerging artists with disabilities.

From Silence to Sound

A deaf man takes a chance on a risky surgery in hopes of hearing for the first time in his life. Director Chase Matthews offers this moving documentary about Justin Garrett, a completely deaf young man who agreed to undergo radical cochlear implant surgery that could possibly make him hear for the first time. Matthews follows Justin as he prepares for, submits to and recovers from the high-stakes surgery. Success will reverse Justin's condition, but failure will irrevocably destine him to a lifetime of total silence.

Hollywood Beauty Salon

HOLLYWOOD BEAUTY SALON portrays life at an intimate beauty parlor inside of the NHS Germantown Recovery Community, a non-profit mental health program in Philadelphia, where staff and clients alike are in the process of recovery. By gathering together to get their hair done, share stories, and support one another, they find a way to rebuild their lives.

Mimi and Dona

What happens when love runs out of time? For a 92-year-old mother, Mimi, who has cared 64 years for her daughter, Dona, who has an intellectual disability, it means facing the inevitable -- she will not outlive her daughter -- and finding her daughter a home. This poignant, heartbreaking and, at times, humorous documentary traces this process through the story of a wonderfully quirky and deeply connected mother-daughter duo.

Pennhurst​

Pennhurst is a story of segregation, abandonment, and the meaning of home as told by the people that lived in, worked at, and crusaded for one of the largest and oldest Intellectual and Developmental Disability Institutions in the United States. The facility, in its closing, challenged society's perception of those with intellectual disabilities and ultimately fought for better rights, rights that are still being fought today.

So Much So Fast

What would you do if you were 29 and found you may only have a few years to live? So Much So Fast is about the remarkable events set in motion when Stephen Heywood discovers he has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and his brother Jamie becomes obsessed with finding a cure.

An Encounter with Simone Weil

An Encounter with Simone Weil tells the story of French philosopher, activist, and mystic, Simone Weil – a woman Albert Camus described as "the only great spirit of our time." On her quest to understand Simone Weil, filmmaker Julia Haslett confronts profound questions of moral responsibility both within her own family and the larger world.

Capturing Grace

It seems like two separate realms. One is occupied by acclaimed dancers from Brooklyn’s legendary Mark Morris Dance Group, the other by people with Parkinson’s disease. Capturing Grace is about what happens when those two worlds intersect. Filmed over the course of a year, this remarkable documentary reveals the hopes, fears, and triumphs of this newly forged community as they work together to create a unique performance.

Generation A: Portraits of Autism
​and the Arts

Autism: Disability or Gift? Generation A: Portraits of Autism and the Arts is a powerful depiction of the daily challenges faced by young people on the autism spectrum, and what creative therapies and art programs are available to stimulate the brain and help young people on the autism spectrum reach their highest potential.

I Am Breathing

I Am Breathing is about the thin space between life and death. Neil Platt ponders the last months of his life. Within a year, he goes from being a healthy young father to becoming completely paralyzed 1from the neck down. As his body gets weaker, his perspective on life changes.

Music by Prudence

In Zimbabwe, where disabled babies are often killed at birth, Prudence not only survives but achieves social acceptance. In this Oscar winning film, follow the story of how Prudence and a band of people with disabilities triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds.

Off The Rails

The remarkable true story of Darius McCollum, a man with Aspergers syndrome whose overwhelming love of transit has landed him in jail 32 times for impersonating New York City bus drivers and subway conductors and driving their routes.

When I Walk

In 2006, 25-year-old Jason DaSilva was on vacation at the beach with family when, suddenly, he fell down. He couldn’t get back up. His legs had stopped working; his disease could no longer be ignored.  Just a few months earlier doctors had told him that he had multiple sclerosis, which could lead to loss of vision and muscle control, as well as a myriad of other complications. Jason tried exercise to help cope, but the problem only worsened. After his dispiriting fall on the beach, he turned to his Mom, who reminded him that, despite his disease, he was still a fortunate kid who had the opportunity to pursue the things he loved most: art and filmmaking.

Anita

Anita is the story of a young woman with Down syndrome who lives a happy, routine life in Buenos Aires, being meticulously cared for by her mother Dora. One tragic morning in 1994, everything changes when Anita is left alone, confused and helpless after the nearby Argentine Israelite Mutual Association is bombed (the deadliest bombing in Argentina’s history).

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

Overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Joe was at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. With doctors and conventional medicine unable to help, Joe traded in junk food and hit the road with a juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe had one goal in mind: To get off his pills and achieve a balanced lifestyle.

GO FAR: The Christopher Rush Story

At the age of seven months, Christopher Rush was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, and his parents were told he would be “no more than a dishrag, and dead by the age of two.” Christopher lived to 30, and in that time he achieved more than most able-bodied people do in a lifetime including becoming the first quadriplegic in the United States licensed as a scuba diver. He was the manager of his high school basketball team; he went to prom; he graduated from the University of Michigan with honors; and he graduated with a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University.

Intelligent Lives

​From award-winning filmmaker Dan Habib comes INTELLIGENT LIVES, a catalyst to transform the label of intellectual disability from a life sentence of isolation into a life of possibility for the most systematically segregated people in America

My Beautiful Stutter

1 in 20 children stutter. Many will stutter for life, facing bullying, stigmatization, emotional and sometimes physical violence, all at the hands of classmates, teachers, family members and society at large. Many hide, shut down, rigorously work toward fluency, or develop tricks to mask their stutter. Some, driven to despair, attempt to take their own lives. Their story has never been told. Until now.

Running for Jim

This award-winning film chronicles the story of Jim Tracy, the deeply dedicated, brutally honest and tough-love coach of the San Francisco University High School cross-country team.  Jim and his team gained international attention when 16 year-old captain Holland Reynolds collapsed and crawled across the finish line at the 2010 California state championship race.  Running for Jim explores how Jim, once a competitive runner, now faces the greatest challenge of his life: battling Lou Gehrig's disease.​

When We Walk

Filmmaker Jason DaSilva has been living with a severe form of multiple sclerosis for over 10 years. In his wheelchair, Jason begins to realize just how many places he is unable to experience with his son. To solve that, he works on a nonprofit AXS Map to help him determine the places he could go.