This Is Not About Me tells the story of Jordyn Zimmerman. Jordyn dreamt of becoming a teacher. She started out eager to learn at school, but she was soon separated from the other children. Unable to communicate, teachers thought she was also unable to understand or learn. Year after year, her behavior worsened. She was restrained and placed in seclusion. Jordyn found herself caught in a system that unintentionally turned her life into a living nightmare. Finally, at the age of 18, with the help of educators who see her differently, she manages to turn her fate and flourish.
Jordyn Zimmerman
Nearly 30 years-old, Hélène still looks like a teenager. She is the author of powerful texts with corrosive humor. It is part, as she says herself, of a "badly calibrated lot, not entering anywhere". Her telepathic poetry speaks of her world and of ours. She accompanies a director who adapts her work to the theater, she talks with a mathematician ... Yet Helene can not talk or hold a pen, she has never learned to read or write. It when she turns 20 that her mother discovers that she can communicate by arranging letters on a sheet of paper. One of the many mysteries of the one that calls herself Babouillec ...
This one-of-a-kind comedy special showcases the comedian's riotous stand-up performance, exploring everything from the Disability experience to her Italian-Catholic upbringing to body image issues and more.
The story of Emeer - AKA B-boy Zulu Rema - a Tunisian teenager, who had both is leg amputated as a child, and of his passion for art and dance, that has helped him become a break dance champion at national level and a role model for young people all over the world.
When adults are ineffectual, children have to grow up quickly. Ola is 14 and she takes care of her dysfunctional father, autistic brother and a mother who lives apart from them and is mainly heard the phone. Most of all she wants to reunite a family that simply doesn’t work — like a defective TV set. She lives in the hope of bringing her mother back home. Her 13 year old brother Nikodem’s Holy Communion is a pretext for the family to meet up. Ola is entirely responsible for preparing the perfect family celebration. “Communion” reveals the beauty of the rejected, the strength of the weak and the need for change when change seems impossible. This crash course in growing up teaches us that failure is not final. Especially when love is in question.
While the debate continues about GMOs, Roundup and other toxic pesticides, this powerful film shares remarkable stories of people who regain their health after discovering the secret ingredients in their food and making a bold commitment to avoid them.
This film, directed by Dominique GAUTIER, takes the viewer on a worldwide excursion into the history and structure of the Esperanto language, introducing its present-day speakers. The words of these users of the language are reflective of a variety of activities and viewpoints, and in the film they are interwoven so as to reveal bit by bit how the utopia of its initiator, Ludwig ZAMENHOF, is concretised every day.
“Factory-made wheelchairs are huge, heavy and ugly.” To counter this reality, wheelchair riders Ralph Hotchkiss and Omar Talavera began making beautiful, all-terrain wheelchairs. Their work draws on the resourcefulness of disabled people in the Third World, who have no choice but to build their own chairs. A well-crafted piece in its own right, Zimbabwe Wheel illustrates that wheelchairs can be truly empowering works of art: hand-crafted machines that are inexpensive, durable, and tailored to the needs of the rider.” Working on your chair is like working on your whole sense of self,” says a student, describing a feeling no factory-made chair can provide.
Traces the lives of the Hartings, a blind Montreal family of three who make their living singing in the city's subway stations. The Hartings lost their only sighted child Hassan in a tragic drowning accident, and have since turned to the teachings of Russian mystic Grigori Grabovoi, hoping to resurrect their son. Resurrecting Hassan is an exploration of this family's legacy of grief, tragedy and abuse; the film will follow them on their path to redemption.
For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.
The battle for accessibility in New York City Transit told by those fighting it. Less than a quarter of stations in the city's sprawling subway system are accessible to people with disabilities and those that need elevators. This film takes you on the frontlines of the disability rights movement featuring the perspectives of activists, local and state legislators, transit advocates and MTA officials.
This BAFTA nominated documentary tells the story of some of the brightest mathematical brains of a generation. Each year, exceptionally gifted teenagers from over 90 countries compete for medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad. The film follows a group of brilliant teenagers as they battle it out to become the chosen six selected to represent the UK.
After moving back to their hometown in Wyoming, a family starts a ranch for special needs children, hoping to provide a sanctuary where everyone can feel like they belong.
Follows five autistic children as they work together to create and perform a live musical production.
Yu Xiuhua was raised to hope for little from her life in the rural Chinese province of Hubei. At 19, Xiuhua’s mother encouraged her to marry a man nearly twice her age, fearful no one else would accept a wife with Xiuhua’s condition — cerebral palsy. But as her 20th anniversary approaches, Xiuhua’s poetry goes viral, and she becomes the voice of a rising feminist movement throughout China.
A young man born with Cerebral Palsy battles a paralyzed left hand, bullies and stereotypes about the disabled to defy the odds and make it as a rock and roll guitarist. Ultimately, sharing the stage with the very band that inspired him to start (or to achieve the impossible).
The Hugo's Brain is a French documentary-drama about autism. The documentary crosses authentic autistic stories with a fiction story about the life of an autistic (Hugo), from childhood to adulthood, portraying his difficulties and his handicap.
Sign The Show: Deaf Culture, Access and Entertainment is a feature-length documentary providing insight into Deaf culture and the quest for access to entertainment. It brings together entertainers, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HOH) community, and American Sign Language interpreters to discuss accessibility at live performances in a humorous, heartfelt, and insightful way.
In southern Carinthia, about ninety percent of all inhabitants spoke Slovenian before 1910. Today it is on average a single digit percentage. In this very personal essay documentary, Andrina Mračnikar formulates a political urgency: What happens when one's mother tongue is taken away in everyday life. What must politicians do to counteract the disappearance of a language whose protection is enshrined in the Austrian constitution.
Twelve years after they went to school together, six children from Berlin with and without disabilities are interviewed on the topic of inclusion in the German school system.