ReelAbilities authentically showcases disability experiences and talent both on screen and behind the camera through award-winning short and feature-length films. Each screening at Kean University includes disability-led discussions that foster community dialogue, challenge stereotypes and promote access — fulfilling ReelAbilities’s mission of reframing disability through powerful storytelling.
ReelAbilities Film Festival at Kean University runs from Thursday, October 8, to Saturday, October 10, with options to attend in person at Kean’s Union campus or stream virtually from home. A talkback will follow each session.
The program will run approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Boys
Director: Olive Bilic
English | Australia
8 min | Narrative
Overwhelmed by the chaos of class, neurodiverse teenager Jacob seeks refuge in an empty locker room, only to find himself facing an unexpected confrontation.
Bad Survivor
Director: Alex Dvorak & Katie North
English, Spanish, Czech | USA
11 min | Narrative
When sarcastic teen Alex is “broken up with” by her oncologists who can’t wait to get rid of her, she’s ripped out of the chaotic hospital life she finds cozy and sent back home to her multicultural family. Despite trying to pick up where she left off one year ago, her overbearing immigrant parents, hypochondriac sister, and MIA best friend have all moved on.
S?nna (Listen)
Director: Radha Mehta
English | United States
13 min | Narrative
S?NNA is an intimate mother-daughter story of resilience and transformation. It is about grief, adaptation, and the enduring power of music and love, even when silence enters their world.
Once More, Like Rain Man
Director: Sue Ann Pien
English | USA
15 min | Narrative
Zoe, an autistic teen actor, sits through yet another audition where the adults behind the table label her “the autistic one,” joke that she “doesn’t look autistic,” and ask if she has an “autism super power” — you know, “like Rain Man.” Her dad Gerry, a struggling screenwriter trying to keep them both afloat, hustles her from room to room while she’s forced into role after role that reduces her to a checkbox.
Misfit
Director: Tristan Zerbib
French | France
14 min | Narrative
In a world where disability is the norm, a wheelchair basketball team, the national sport, is caught off guard. They’re forced to train with an able-bodied person.
