Matthew August Jeffers and Sarah Hay in Unidentified Objects
On April 27, the 15th annual ReelAbilities Film Festival opens for a seven-day silver screen extravaganza as the largest festival in the United States celebrating the lives, stories and artistic expression of people with disabilities.
Since being co-founded in 2007 at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan by producer and director Isaac Zablocki and United Jewish Appeal veteran Anita Altman, the festival has expanded to some 16 cities across the country in addition to having an international presence in Canada and Mexico.
This year’s version of the groundbreaking celebration of disability arts and culture will feature an opening night honoring Best Supporting Actor Academy Award Winner Troy Kotsur (CODA) and a special event in memory of disability activism heavyweight Judith Heumann who passed away earlier this year.
ReelAbilities will also host its second annual Industry Accessibility Summit in partnership with the NYC Mayor’s Office for Media and Entertainment which will cover trends and best practices related to disability inclusion and representation across the film and performing arts industries.
Below are three of the stand-out feature films that are guaranteed to move hearts and minds at the 2023 ReelAbilities Film Festival.
Unidentified Objects
Directed by Juan Felipe Zuleta and starring Matthew August Jeffers and Sarah Hay, Unidentified Objects is a surreal genre-bending tale chronicling an impromptu road trip on a quest to experience a potential alien visitation out in the Canadian wilderness.
Peter, a misanthropic gay dwarf who shields himself from the world in his murky New York apartment is urged to come along for the ride by his off-the-wall sex worker neighbor Winona. Along the way, the pair encounter bickering lesbian cosplayers, shroom-addled survivalists with some extra-terrestrial highway cops thrown in for good measure.
Marking the festival’s opening night, the movie touches on themes of grief, systemic bias, disability, isolation and what it truly means to be alone in the vastness of space – Unidentified Objects tackles the most critical aspects of the human condition without ever taking itself too seriously.
Born with a rare form of dwarfism, leading man Mathew August Jeffers said of the presence of little people in films and TV in the movie’s publicity materials:
“Aside from Unidentified Objects, every part I have played on stage and screen was written for a person of average height. I’ve always had to go into the audition room and change a director’s mind about how they see a role. This industry can be really, really cold and cruel. Especially for underrepresented groups! You have to change minds. And in my experience, the best way to do that is with the work itself.”
He continued, “Regarding those who have had an impact on me, Game of Thrones was at the mountaintop when I was in college studying acting. Watching Peter Dinklage’s meteoric rise proved that my dreams were possible.”
No Ordinary Campaign
Premiering at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2022, where it won the Audience Award for best documentary, No Ordinary Campaign is an awe-inspiring voyage into the dark and seemingly hopeless world of ALS – a cruel and unforgiving neurological condition for which there is no cure.
A one-time college athlete, Brian Wallach was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 37 on the same day that he and his wife Sandra brought their second daughter home from the hospital.
The couple are both former White House employees and the documentary features former President Barack Obama commenting on their battle to make the impossible possible through grit and determination as they seek to challenge a medical establishment that has become passive and complacent in its attitude to ALS.
A patient revolution reminiscent of the HIV fight, No Ordinary Campaign is directed and produced by Christopher Burke. Tim Rummel is the producer while Katie Couric, Phil Rosenthal and Jeff MacGregor serve as executive producers.
OKAY! The ASD Band Film
This Canadian documentary film directed by Mark Bone profiles the Toronto-based ASD Band – a group of musicians on the autism spectrum.
The film follows band members Rawan, Jackson, Spenser and Ron who, through their shared love of music, challenge autism stigmas as the audience is taken on the occasionally perilous but ultimately joyful journey of the band recording their first album and performing their first public show.
Premiering at the 2022 Hot Dogs Canadian International Documentary Festival, OKAY! The ASD Band Film will provide the closing night finale for the ReelAbilities Film Festival.
Offering unique insights into the interplay of musical creativity, neurodiversity and societal acceptance – the words of Jackson D. Begley on what it means to live on the spectrum are likely to remain long in the mind:
“Life is a play and everybody has the script but you.”
The ASD Band members
Though, throughout its 15-year history, the ReelAbilities Film Festival has served up scores of spellbinding features multiplied in their originality through the unique characters they depict and the artistic flourish afforded therein – a consistent ethos and set of organizational principles have remained steadfast throughout.
These are perhaps best illustrated by festival co-founder Isaac Zablocki:
“Every year, we receive hundreds of submissions to our festival. And we have to say ‘no’ to a lot of good films. We choose very high-quality films, and films that focus really on a progressive approach to disability. So, we look for films that are in first person, we look for films that are told from within the community and not as an outside perspective, we look for films that break with the cliches of how disability has been represented or misrepresented by Hollywood and by media all these years,” Zablocki says.
He continues, “We look to push the envelope there and look for the most exciting voices in responsible representation and good storytelling as well as high production levels. So, the content is extremely unique. Often, we find films that are amazing and don't screen anywhere else and we truly give a home and an opportunity for a lot of these films.”
Just like in the real world, on the silver screen equally, it’s far too common to see disability pushed out of the spotlight and into the shadows. Any platform that enables creatives with disabilities to coalesce and amplify each other’s talents and excellence provides crucial visibility in addition to proving that disability and real ability are very much two sides of the same coin.
