As a visibly disabled person, filmmaker Reid Davenport is often either the subject of an unwanted gaze — gawked at by strangers — or paradoxically rendered invisible, ignored or dismissed by society. The arrival of a circus tent just outside his apartment prompts him to consider the history and legacy of the freak show, in which individuals who were deemed atypical were put on display for the amusement and shock of a paying public. Contemplating how this relates to his own filmmaking practice, which explicitly foregrounds disability, Davenport sets out to make a film about how he sees the world from his wheelchair without having to be seen himself.
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Method Sampling: How to Build the Future Together (2023)
Method Sampling is explored through the works of a hip-hop orchestra, a disabled choreographer, a self-taught Black mycologist, a tiny house builder and a critical theorist.
The World at Arm's Length (2018)
Sven has a dream. Once in his life he wants to walk the Camino de Santiago - the Way of St. James. But that seems impossible, Sven has Usher syndrome, a disease which slowly, inexorably robs him of hearing and vision. Profoundly deaf and completely blind since 2010, he can only communicate using a special hearing aid in the spoken language.
Mind Over Matter (2017)
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 Current: Explore the Healing Powers of the Ocean (2014)
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Resurrecting Hassan (2017)
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Shameless: The Art of Disability (2006)
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What Can You Do About It? (2019)
When filmmaker Yoshifumi Tsubota learns about his slightly autistic uncle who lives alone, he decides to visit him. Drawn to his uncle’s unique personality, he begins to roll his camera as he visits him over the years. Tsubota himself had been diagnosed with a developmental disability and so understanding his uncle is also an act of understanding himself. Through intimate and personal footage, this charming film is gem of a documentary that also highlights contemporary social issues surrounding aging and social care for the disabled.
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David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived (2023)
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Eva-Maria (2021)
Eva-Maria works as a secretary at a teacher training college. A position she is very proud of. It was not easy to get this job, because she has been dependent on a wheelchair since her childhood due to spastic cerebral palsy. However, Eva-Maria has never let herself be intimidated. She knows what she wants and how to get it. Without compromise, she wants to create the life she has always dreamed of. One of her biggest dreams: a child of her own. With the help of in vitro fertilization, she now wants to fulfil this wish for herself. Supported by her family and accompanied by her assistants, she tackles "the child project". But her situation is unknown territory for everyone. The peculiarities of her body present new and unfamiliar challenges to both medicine and her assistants. Documented by one of her assistants, this film provides an unusually intimate insight into a life beyond conventional family planning.
Maddy the Model (2020)
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Thriving with Cerebral Palsy: The Cordell Brown Story (2018)
This documentary chronicles the inspirational story of a man who would not accept "no" for an answer. Born with cerebral palsy, Cordell Brown faced many challenges and most believed he would amount to nothing. Despite the odds stacked against him, Cordell proves that with heartfelt determination he can make a difference in the world.
Still Tomorrow (2017)
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.