Best Summer Ever Serves As Template For Disability Representation in Hollywood
Antonio Ferme, provided by
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The opening musical number in “Best Summer Ever” ends with a kiss between protagonists Sage (Shannon DeVido) and Tony (Rickey Wilson Jr.), who fall in love at a sleepaway dance camp in Vermont. Executive producer Will Halby said he shared a realization with his crew while filming this scene.
“I turned to our directors and said, ‘I don’t think that this is something that has ever been put on film before,’” Halby said.
What’s unprecedented here is that Sage is in a wheelchair and is played by an actress who herself is in a wheelchair. In fact, it’s the first musical to star people with disabilities and the first SAG-registered movie in which more than half the cast and crew are disabled.
Bernardo Villalobos (Mr. V), played by Eugenio Derbez, composing the spring concert.
This year s festival line-up includes several titles that feature disability in the plot, including day one screening CODA.
RespectAbility the nonprofit organization that seeks to combat stigmas for people with disabilities has set a Sundance Film Festival conversation program with its Accessibility and Inclusion Lab.
The five conversations series, running Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, will focus on the intersection of filmmaking and disability-related subjects and will include Troy Kotsur, Cheryl Bedford, Ashley Eakin and CJ Jones as panelists, among others. Each of the events will include live captions, as well as ASL interpreters.
About The Event
Governors Chris Thomes and Lori H. Schwartz, along with the Interactive Media Peer Group Executive Committee, invite members to:
Disability Representation in Media
The depiction of disability in the media plays a major role in molding public perceptions. Media platforms have too often reinforced negative images and ideas about people with disabilities, directly influencing the way those individuals are treated in current society.
In response, performers and creators with disabilities, who have been consistently excluded from telling their own stories in mainstream media, are actively pursuing their own projects designed around and marketed towards audiences seeking more authentic portrayals of this community.