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.
We Are the Audience
Director: Eliza Brownlie
French | Canada
6 min | Documentary
People who stutter question how the world sees them and advocate for how they wish to be seen. Blending documentary intimacy with cinematic craft, this film offers a rare portrayal of a group of people who stutter as they together conceive a new future for dysfluent voices. The film is co-created in partnership with the stuttering community through doctoral participatory action research, and features a score by a composer who stutters.
Heavy Healing
Director: Howie Abrams
English | United States
1 hour 38 min | Documentary
Much like Rock ‘n’ Roll before it, heavy, aggressive music, including, but not limited to Heavy Metal, Punk, Hardcore and underground Hip-Hop, has gotten a bad rap since inception. Be that as it may, many who have been impacted by a wide variety of enervating conditions have come to rely on the output of heavy artists to successfully assist them through severe illness, weighty medical conditions, as well as debilitating mental health challenges.
