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 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Don’t Take This the Wrong Way
Director: Rachel Handler and Crystal Arnette
English | USA
6 min | Narrative
Beaten down by constant ableist microaggressions and a devastating breakup, Darcy begins to unravel. This thriller was created for the 2025 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge.
Disposable Humanity
Director: Cameron S. Mitchell
English | United States
1 hour 35 min | Documentary
The Mitchell family, made up of Disability Studies scholars and filmmakers, has researched the Nazi Aktion T4 program since the 1990s. Through conversations with memorial directors, disabled people, and relatives of T4 victims, they uncover the horrifying truth: that the Nazi Aktion T4 program was, in fact, the program where the Nazis trained killing staff and designed the apparatus of mass murder that led to the Holocaust. Disabled people were the first victims to be killed under the Third Reich, and in this investigative documentary, the Mitchells reveal how this history has been covered over and erased from international public memory.
