Directed by Nicole Melillo, the fantasy short The Cab took home the Jury Award for Best Short Film at the 2023 Bentonville Film Festival. With its fresh take on mental health, the short film’s praise is well-deserved. [continue reading…]
My Eyes Are Up Here is an odyssey to get the morning after pill. How could a short film be an odyssey? When a disabled woman of color needs to travel to a pharmacy for the morning after pill, the number of obstacles and quick assumptions she has to face parallels those of Odysseus. The short film was part of the 2023 Bentonville Film Festival – a festival focused on promoting underrepresented voices in entertainment.
A high-profile model Sonya (Jillian Mercado) wakes up from a one-night stand with a clumsy man named Tom (Ben Cura). Quickly, they discover that she will need to take the morning after pill, so Sonya begins the journey to get it with Tom as her unwanted sidekick. As Sonya goes about her business, you witness the numerous ableist situations and people Sonya has to deal with every day. There is only an unstable makeshift ramp to get out of Tom’s building. The ride-sharing service is inaccessible. Obnoxious women will not move their shopping bags out of the accessible area on the bus. None of these moments are surprising to Sonya, as they are the reality of being visibly disabled in our society. However, through Tom’s now-open eyes, a day in the life for Sonya is an extensive journey. [continue reading…]
After being financed by the Gesher Multicultural Film Fund, Voyage avec mon pere, translated to A Journey With My Dad, premiered at the 2023 Bentonville Film Festival in the Competition Animation Films category.
The hand-drawn animated short follows a precocious 5 year old girl named Tamar as she accompanies her dad to a hotel for a vacation. Tamar is overjoyed to jump into the pool with all the other father and daughter duos, but grows increasingly impatient when her dad struggles to blow enough air into her floatie. She jumps in and is filled with curiosity upon seeing a man with one leg swimming underneath. Her curiosity is cut short when her dad pulls her out of the water. He gives her a menacing glare as he catches his breath. [continue reading…]
What if your mom came back as a fish? Current Entertainment and News Media Fellow and Entertainment Lab Alumnus Jeremy Hsing’s most recent short, FISH, answers that question. His answers led him to win a Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Astoria Film Festival last weekend.
We meet Tiger, played beautifully by co-writer Patrick Zhang, while he is listening to voicemails from his estranged and recently deceased mom. All of a sudden, the fish keeping him company from a far begins to speak, and he realizes that it is his mom reincarnated. Inspired by Everything Everywhere All At Once, Hsing and Zhang were interested in “finding an absurd premise and taking it very seriously.” This story asks big questions around grief and self-acceptance while creating comedic moments that are bound to happen when a son is talking to his fish/mom.
One of these hilarious scenes happens when Tiger is fighting with his mom about ordering scallion pancakes over her request to order fish. On the surface, the whole scene is absurd, but simultaneously the argument gives the audience a glimpse at generational differences that exist in this relationship. This scene, in context with the rest of the short, is clearly a metaphorical fight about Tiger’s sexuality. [continue reading…]
On May 2, 2023, after failing to come to an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (which includes 350+ TV and film studios and production companies), the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike – stopping all writing projects and bringing many Hollywood productions to a halt.
Since 2018, screenwriters’ pay has gone down about 20%. Additionally, writers are no longer receiving residuals (a percentage of the profit a show makes after it premieres) after their shows go on streaming platforms. Many writers are struggling to make enough money to live. With more than half of American households “cutting the cord” and only buying streaming services, along with the rise of AI technology capable of writing scripts, the concerns around writers’ wages only continue to grow. Writers are seeking a new contract with studios to protect their livelihood given the changing technological landscape.
The major WGA demands include:
Learn more: Full List of WGA Demands. [continue reading…]
Summer and sex are here for Chrissy Marshall and her new Easterseals Disability Film Challenge winning short, Rain in my Head. Marshall’s work as a writer/director features two deaf queer lovers, Sarah and Marie, who wander through the quandaries of connection and fulfillment. At the start, Sarah, smoking in the arms of her lover, poses the question: “Do you ever get tired of seeing the glass half full?” Marie answers: “No. We’ve struggled enough. It’s time to be happy.” After the exchange, the film joyfully ambles through a portrait of their lives, holding true to the promise of happiness that Marie speaks of. After all, queer love receiving a happy ending is no small thing. For Rain in my Head, it is the happiness being the end destination that makes it work so well.
In addition to the upbeat ending, the gorgeous movement of the camera and lighting draws us in. It is very apparent that Marshall has homed in on a directing style that is clear and effective. Her film drew accolades from the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge for that as well. [continue reading…]
Credit: ABC/Raymond Liu
Los Angeles, May 1 – A recent study by NRG and Deaf West Theater shows at least 79% of deaf consumers believe that there has been more representation of their community in TV and film compared to a year ago. One actress contributing to this representation across genres is Shaylee Mansfield. At just 14 years of age, Mansfield is quickly becoming a household name and role model for all children.
“I’m grateful to have a platform that will give not only Deaf children, but all children to freely speak up, to fight for what they want, and to be fully themselves even if it is not ‘popular,’” Mansfield said in an interview with RespectAbility.
While many of her roles in the past were for children’s shows, Mansfield’s current role is on ABC’s The Company You Keep. She first guest starred as Ollie in the pilot (February 2023), playing cards with her grandfather. [continue reading…]
Los Angeles, April 28 – A new Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Report examining Netflix’s U.S. original, live-action, fictional series and films is changing the landscape in the entire entertainment industry. This report, which is the second in a series, looks across Netflix films and series in 2020 and 2021 and follows the inaugural collaboration from 2021 that included findings on movies and episodic content from 2018 and 2019. While most studies solely focus on representation of race and gender, a very important aspect to note is the study’s in-depth review of disability representation on screen. Since so few reports include disability, it is commendable that Netflix was intentional about the inclusion of disability.
The sample included a total of 546 fictional narratives (249 fictional films, 297 series) between 2018 – 2021. Only 4.2% of those in 2021 featured leads / co-leads with a disability. Unfortunately, these numbers do not come close to representing the 27.2% of people in the U.S. having a disability per the U.S. census. While the stats show that more work needs to be done, the mere fact that this study has published this data shows Netflix’s desire to be fully inclusive. [continue reading…]
Salt Lake City, UT, April 20 – A new report by Luminate found that disability representation on screen was by far and away the lowest of any minority group they analyzed. In 2021, there were only five main title cast roles in film for people who identified as disabled. The following year, there were just three roles, which means only half a percent of films over the last two years had a main cast member with a disability. These numbers improve only very slightly in series television; there were nine series regulars who identified as disabled in both 2021 and 2022. With Americans continuing to consume roughly five hours of media a day on streaming services and traditional television, representation, or in this case, lack of representation impacts how society views people with disabilities.
“At their best, films and TV series can help remove current stigmas that exist for people with disabilities,” said RespectAbility’s Senior Vice President Lauren Appelbaum. “These stories can shift assumptions and bring attention to larger systemic issues. However, inclusion of disabled people must be an intentional effort on the part of studios and content creators. Disabled talent exists and need to be given the platform to create.”
The problem is not just in front of the screen. There were zero film directors with disabilities over the last two years and just one series creator who identified as disabled: Ryan O’Connell. O’Connell created and starred in the Netflix show Special based on his life as a gay man with cerebral palsy. Along with his role in Peacock’s Queer as Folk, O’Connell’s on-screen work accounts for more than 10 percent of series regular roles for actors with disabilities.
While Hollywood still struggles to hire disabled talent, it continues to make movies that center disabled narratives. Fifteen films were released over the last two years that centered disabled stories and yet the industry clearly did not rely on the community whose stories they were using to make money. This needs to change. Authentic casting and representation behind the camera help to ensure better representation. It is time for Hollywood to hear what disability activists have been shouting for decades: “nothing about us, without us.” [continue reading…]
Juliet Romeo’s short film, “Uncomplicated”, shows the complexities of dating and relationships while living with a chronic illness, specifically sickle cell disease, a condition rarely portrayed in media.
Clare is begrudgingly getting ready to go on a date with Paul set up by the app, Uncomplicated. Her sister says, “Just try to have a little bit of fun tonight. What’s the worst that can happen?”
During the date, Clare struggles to hide her sickle cell anemia, running to the bathroom to turn on her oxygen concentrator hidden in her purse when her watch alarms her that her oxygen is too low. Paul assumes she is not enjoying the date, but Clare starts to say, “it’s complicated”, when Paul states, “Please don’t say complicated: it’s the one thing the app promised this wouldn’t be.” [continue reading…]
