Documentaries and dialogue to be part of film series

The Design4Disability Film Festival will be held in the Black Box Theatre Feb. 20-22. (Contributed photo)

The College of Health and Human Performance’s Design4Disability Film Festival will bring more than movies to the East Carolina University campus next week. Conversations are central to the event; each film screening will be followed by a discussion among the audience, people living with disabilities and professionals who work within the disabled community.

The festival, which runs Feb. 20-22 at the Black Box Theatre in ECU’s Main Campus Student Center, features five documentaries about people living with a range of physical and intellectual disabilities.

The films include: “Gleason,” about former New Orleans Saints player — and recent Congressional Gold Medal recipient — Steve Gleason and his diagnosis with Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS; “American Veteran,” which follows a young veteran injured in Afghanistan and his life after returning home; “FIXED: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement,” which explores the social impact of human biotechnologies; “Intelligent Lives,” which shares the stories of three young adults with intellectual disabilities as they navigate school, the workforce and life; and the Academy-Award-nominated “Murderball,” which follows the U.S. quadriplegic rugby team’s journey to the 2004 Paralympic Games.

“We feel these movies will create a dialogue about disability-related issues and hope audience members go out and discuss them in their own communities. These films and discussions can help change the way our campus and our community view disability. The movies themselves are amazing but I really think the discussions afterwards are going to be the highlight,” David Loy, recreational therapy professor and lead organizer of the Design4Disability initiative, said.

Panelists scheduled to take part in post-film discussions include neurologist and researcher Richard S. Bedlack Jr. from the Duke Neurological Disorders Clinic; ALS advocate Mary Ann Cooper; Venkata Jonnalagadda, associate chief of staff of the Greenville Veterans Health Care Center; and Wayne Goodwin, director of ECU’s Innovation Design Lab.

Paralympians Mark Zupan and Bob Lujano, featured in “Murderball,” and that film’s co-director, Dana Adam Shapiro, will also join the festival conversation remotely.

“We want to expand dialogue within the disability community and between the disability and the able-bodied community,” said Anisa Zvonkovic, dean of the College of Health and Human Performance. “The film festival is really an introductory step toward dialogue that can improve our community and improve mutual understanding, which is important for our students, whose career goals often include working with people with disabilities. I’ve loved watching these films and seeing how each one illustrates something unique about the human experience.

“Our disability initiative is designed to showcase the varieties of ways that the academic units within the college work alongside people affected by disability in order to optimize their well-being. Because disability is so broad and such a diverse group, we felt like films were a great vehicle to demonstrate all of this variety. We wanted to have an event that really invites people with disabilities into the conversation as actors and in their full humanity.”

Loy added, “One of our D4D pillars is inclusion and access. The festival provides some insight into some of the issues that individuals in the disabled community face every day. Our committee selected films that are fun and thought provoking and that provide audiences the opportunity to view disability in a different light.”

A personal highlight for Loy? “I am excited for all the movies, but I know that the ‘Murderball’ reunion on Friday night is going to be my favorite. I knew Mark Zupan and Bob Lujano before they made the movie, and I can’t wait for them to share their stories with the audience of what they’ve done since the movie was made 15 years ago. I think the audience will be amazed at their stories,” he said.

ECU’s Student Activities Board has also partnered with the festival to bring the feature film “The Peanut Butter Falcon” to campus for screenings throughout the weekend as a complement to the documentaries. The film, set in North Carolina, tells the story of a young man with Down Syndrome who dreams of being a pro wrestler.

All films are free and open to the public. For more information, including film schedule, visit: https://go.ecu.edu/D4Dfilmfest.

Individuals requesting accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should contact the ADA Coordinator at least 48 hours prior to the event at 252-737-1018 or ada-coordinator@ecu.edu.

-by Kelly Rusk, University Communications