Los Angeles Times - 02.11.2019

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disabilities.
In a short film called
“CODA,” made as a USC
graduate thesis project, I
learned about the struggles
of a hearing child of deaf
adults. In “The Peanut
Butter Falcon,” a feature
film that hit the big screens
this year, I laughed a lot as I
watched a young man with
Down syndrome ditch the
nursing home he’d been
dumped in and start living
as an outlaw with a fisher-
man also escaping his trou-
bles.
I also found the fully
inclusive way the festival
presented them exciting.
I especially loved seeing
the captions on the big
screen. They featured not
just every word every person
said but also the sounds, in
parentheses: (YELLING),
(THUNDER RUMBLING),
(ENGINE REVVING),
(GENTLE SNORING),
(PHONE RINGING). They
increased my enjoyment
because I understood how

much they increased the

enjoyment of the highly

engaged festival audience.

The second annual L.A.

event felt beautiful and

natural and celebratory. But

it also felt fleeting and

ephemeral and thus a little

bittersweet because it exists

here for just one weekend

each year.

After the ball, Cinderel-

la’s coach turned back into a

pumpkin. After ReelAbili-

ties L.A. — whose sponsors

included Walt Disney Stu-

dios, Universal, CBS and

Lionsgate — much of the

entertainment industry at

every level is likely to go

back to doing much what it’s

been doing for ages.

At the AMC movie thea-

ter at Universal Studios

CityWalk, where ReelAbili-

ties was held, I watched as

deaf people heartily ap-

plauded by holding their

hands up and twisting their

wrists back and forth. I

spent hours in the dark with

many people in wheelchairs

as well as little people and a

blind young man who lis-

tened to the movies on a

headset, with audio descrip-

tions that filled in what he

couldn’t see. We all were

able to escape together

comfortably into the world

of the movies.

But while movie theaters

are required by the Ameri-

cans with Disabilities Act

to accommodate the disa-

bled, most meet minimum

standards and could not

handle the festival crowd

without a lot of advance

preparation.

A fire marshal had to be

called in to make a safety

plan for the wheelchairs

because the theater ordi-

narily is set up for just four, I

was told by Stephen David

Simon, executive director of

the city’s Department on

Disability.

A ramp from the middle

of the theater to the front

had to be installed on the

day the festival started so

that participants in the

various discussion panels

who had mobility issues

could appear before the

audience to present their

thoughts.

A lot of minivans have

chairs that can be pulled out

to make space — but thea-

ters don’t, which makes it

hard to make room quickly

for more wheelchairs, Si-

mon said. He called learning

about such issues “eye

opening.”

The festival tries to spot-

light these and other issues

that confirm what disabled

people often say: They are

held back less by their disa-

bilities than by the rest of

the world’s failure to em-

brace and accommodate

them. I’ve been learning a

lot about such failures

lately, and I’m doing my best

to spread the word.

As many as 61 million —

or 1 in 4 — adult Americans

have some form of disability,

according to the Centers

for Disease Control and

Prevention. But in Holly-

wood, the talents of people

with disabilities don’t often

get harnessed, either in

front of or behind the cam-

era.

Complex stories taking

in the breadth of disabled

people’s lived experience

aren’t regularly told. And on

those occasions when a

script features a disabled

person, a big-name actor

who doesn’t have the disa-

bility often will get the part.

Disabled actors also rarely

get the chance to play the

sort of everyday scenes that

have nothing to do with

disability at all.

If breaking into Holly-

wood is a long shot for most

people, having a disability

greatly diminishes those

slim odds.

That was one of the

things that I heard a lot as I

talked to people at the

festival and attended panel

discussions.

For five seasons, RJ

Mitte played Walter White

Jr., the son of the central

character on the critically

acclaimed show “Breaking

Bad.” Walter Jr. had cer-

ebral palsy, as Mitte does in

a mild form. The role made

him a recognizable celebrity

who turns heads on the

street. But at a panel on how

disability is portrayed on

the screen, he said he still

doesn’t get offered a wide

range of parts. He’s mostly

tapped to play people

with traumatic brain in-

juries.

“Why can’t the actor with

the disability say, ‘They

went that way’ or ‘Do you

want fries with that?’ That

has to open up,” said Gail

Williamson, a talent agent

focused on diversity at

Kazarian, Measures, Ruskin

& Associates, who became

involved in the field years

ago when her son, Blair, now

40, who has Down syn-

drome, expressed his desire

to be an actor.

ReelAbilities started in

New York in 2007, and its

festivals now have spread

around the country and

internationally. In L.A.,

local co-director Michael

Dougherty, a disability

activist and screenwriter,

lobbied to bring the festival

here and takes the lead in

selecting the films.

Dougherty was born

with spina bifida and hydro-

cephalus. Painful surgeries

were a big part of his child-

hood. He’s had 29 surgeries

in all. He said his earliest

memory, which shaped the

rest of his life, is from when

he was 3 and his parents

took him to a movie theater

to see “E.T.”

“When the spaceship

comes down in the very

beginning and you see all of

those rainbow lights coming

through the trees, I remem-

ber that I went from

scratching at sutures and

bandages that were

wrapped around my head

because I was recovering

from brain surgery, I sud-

denly put my hands down

and didn’t feel any more

pain,” he said.

Later, when he was 11 or

12, “Edward Scissorhands”

would also make a lasting

impression on this fiercely

intelligent man who has

climbed mountains and

gone cage diving to see great

white sharks in South Africa

and has two master’s de-

grees (one in special educa-

tion and one in screenwrit-

ing) and would give any-

thing to have people take an

interest in the complex

stories he tries to tell featur-

ing fully realized people with

disabilities.

“The story of this boy

who was considered incom-

plete who found his way into

the world and into people’s

lives through art ... that

completely changed my life

because for the very first

time I absolutely did not feel

alone,” he said of Tim Bur-

ton’s movie.

Dougherty led a number

of the festival’s discussions,

which were conveyed to all

with the help of sign lan-

guage interpreters and

comments typed up in real

time and projected on a

screen.

What often came up was

a weariness with the usual

Hollywood cliches about

disability: That a disabled

person who is able to do

anything at all — from

crossing a street to shop-

ping at a supermarket —

is “inspirational.” That

the real story should

center on the non-disabled

who have the heart to reach

out and change the lives

of those poor disabled

people. That if you find

yourself paralyzed in a

wheelchair, you’ll naturally

want to kill yourself. (That

story line combined with

the casting of a non-

disabled actor in the key

role in the 2016 romantic

drama “Me Before You”

infuriated many disabled

people.)

I’m feeling a little bad

telling you about what I

saw now, when it’s too late

for you to join me at the

festival. Next year, I promise

to start urging you to go

well in advance. This year,

there were too many

empty seats at most screen-

ings.

Most people who came

were disabled people. The

festival’s strong messages

were preached to the choir.

The dream is to fill those

empty seats with casting

agents, producers and

studio executives, to inspire

them to reach higher — and

with moviegoers like you

and me to start to demand

that they do so.

Film festival’s spotlight

illuminates and inspires

DANCERSwith Down For Dance, which offers programs for those with Down

syndrome, perform at the ReelAbilities film festival Oct. 25 at Universal City.

Myung J. ChunLos Angeles Times

[City Beat, from B1]