Hollywood Inclusion

Courtesy of Sundance Institute. Photo by Bjørg Engdahl.

Park City, Utah, Jan 31 – The first 10 minutes of Benjamin Ree’s documentary “Ibelin” is a story about a family coming to terms with loss after their son and brother passes away at 25 from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. However, as the film goes on, viewers realize that “Ibelin” is actually a story about the life and impact of Mats Steen, who discovers a world of friends through online gaming, where he uses the moniker Ibelin Redmoore, famed detective and nobleman. Overall, “Ibelin,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this month, is a coming-of-age story about new ways of creating relationships. [continue reading…]

Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Lucienne Bloch.

Park City, Utah, Jan 31 – The Sundance hit “Frida” takes viewers through the famed painter’s life and how her acquired disability plays a role throughout Frida Kahlo’s life. As a teenager, she wanted to become a doctor. After acquiring her disability, she found fulfillment in painting.

In the opening moments, viewers hear an actor reading excerpts from Frida’s writings. “In my life, I’ve only painted the honest expression of myself. To say what I couldn’t in any other way. I pant because I need to.” [continue reading…]

Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Herb Ritts / AUGUST.

Park City, Utah, Jan 31 – As “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” premiered during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, audience members were visibly holding back tears, being pulled into the story of not just Christopher Reeve but also his family. The lives of the mother of his first two children, his wife, and his three children were intertwined throughout the documentary in a way that brought Reeve’s life and legacy to the forefront. This documentary ultimately becomes a film about a family – with each family member learning how to deal with their own individual trauma. [continue reading…]

Park City, January 17 – In 2020, filmmaker and disability advocate Juliet Romeo reached out to Slamdance co-founder Peter Baxter, stressing the need for a program for and by disabled filmmakers. Conversations turned to action and Slamdance Unstoppable was born. In 2021, the virtual Slamdance Film Festival included a showcase of disability-inclusive short films. In 2023, Slamdance Unstoppable, which included both short and feature films, aired both in-person and virtually. This year, all Slamdance Unstoppable films will screen in both Park City and Salt Lake City.

Uplifting and amplifying stories by disabled filmmakers is vital due to the disproportionately low representation of disability in the entertainment industry both in front of and behind the camera. In a recent study by USC Annenberg, only 1.9% of all speaking characters in the top 100 grossing films of 2022 were portrayed as disabled, an incredibly small number compared to the 27% of the U.S. population that is Disabled. By showcasing this collection, the Slamdance Unstoppable block is helping to change these statistics. [continue reading…]

Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Park City, January 16 – With one-in-five people having a disability in the U.S. today, the lack of representation – just 1.9 percent of characters in the 100 top-grossing films of 2022 and 8 percent in family films – means that millions of people are unable to see themselves reflected in media.

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival (January 18 – 28) will provide an opportunity for audiences with various disabilities to see themselves represented – both in-person and virtually.

This year, several films feature disability in the plot, including A Different Man, FRIDA, Ibelin, Out of My Mind, The Outrun, Stress Positions, Suncoast, and Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, among others. [continue reading…]

The short horror film Our First Priority tackles the important concept of medical gaslighting, which is not talked about as often as it should. Writer/Director Ariel Baska utilizes music, light, and color to give the topic the horror treatment.

Opening with music evoking a horror film, the tone quickly shifts to viewers seeing a young girl named Hannah in the hospital for a checkup. The sudden lack of background music is jarring, highlighting the importance of the interaction. The nurse makes it clear that Hannah is there by herself, but the viewer sees an older version of Hannah lurking, watching the entire interaction, inserting her thoughts.

Our First Priority takes viewers into Hannah’s mind – showing how the fluorescent lights distort her vision and hearing, all the while hearing older Hannah saying she should be worried. When Hannah reads her long list of symptoms – that are recurring – the doctor ignores her, instead playing with a flashlight. The flashing of the light underscores the doctor choosing to ignore the patient. [continue reading…]

The new animated Disney movie WISH is opening today in theaters nationwide. The film centers on Asha, a 17-year-old who stands for an injustice in her kingdom. Asha’s best friend Dahlia is a disabled teen, yet the film does not go into details about her disability.

Instead, viewers see Dahlia having an important job – running the palace bakery and leading six other teenage characters who work with her in the palace – and playing an integral role in helping Asha – and their entire friend group – succeed in their mission.

Jennifer Kumiyama

Dahlia is not defined by her cerebrovascular disease, subtly indicated by her crutch and gait. Jennifer Kumiyama was authentically cast for the role Dahlia. [continue reading…]

Star ASL interpreters dazzle again in the second season of Amazon Music Live (AML), a weekly concert series hosted by award-winning rapper 2 Chainz and broadcast live from Los Angeles on Prime Video after Thursday Night Football (9:00 p.m. PT | 12:00 a.m. ET). Artists like Kane Brown, Ed Sheeran, and Asap Rocky have graced the AML stage alongside specially selected Amber G Productions interpreters and performers including Justina Miles, Martise Colston, and Matthew Maxey.

While these performances are typically on Thursdays from Los Angeles, this week, due to Thanksgiving, AML will air on Nov. 24 at 7:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 p.m. PT this week, on Prime Video and Twitch, following the Miami Dolphins – New York Jets game. Garth Brooks is slated to headline, livestreamed from the grand opening of his new downtown Nashville Bar, Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk. Brooks will be performing new music live for the first time. [continue reading…]

Read the report

After numerous disability organizations including RespectAbility and FWD-Doc lobbied for disability inclusion, the 2023 UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report is tracking the disability status of actors for the first time.

“Recently, a few of the data sources used for this report have begun to collect information about disability,” the report states. “As more than one source on actor disability status became available as recently as December 2022, we were able to move forward with collecting and reporting on these data for the first time in this year’s report.”

The report’s end notes mention that one of these sources is Nielsen-owned Gracenote, which began tracking on-screen disability representation as part of its inclusion data in late 2022, with the assistance of RespectAbility. “We were honored to provide input to Nielsen’s Gracenote leading to new metrics indicating progress on representation of disabled talent on screen,” RespectAbility’s SVP Lauren Appelbaum was quoted in Variety in December 2022. “Being able to measure the gap in representation of disability is a powerful capability that equips the media industry to act and invest in representative content and disabled talent. We hope tracking representation will lead to an increase over time.” [continue reading…]