#disability-representation

#disability-representation

I didn't want to get hearing devices because, to me, there was a horrible stigma. People who wore hearing aids were doddering. They didn't listen, they said, 'what, what,' over and over. Worse, the hearing aid would make this squealing sound. I worried that it was the beginning of the end of me.

Institutionally, we still don't understand what inclusion means. Just because you invite someone into a space, but you don't provide the necessary resources to keep them and everyone else in that room safe by them being there, that's not inclusivity. That's exploitation. That man's disability got exploited that night, and it led to multiple offenses.

Take Me Home is a film about a caregiver, and the spirit of caregiving infused the entire production. Writer-director Liz Sargent based the feature, her first, on her short of the same name, which premiered at Sundance in 2023. It stars Anna Sargent, her sister, as a woman with a cognitive disability who is the caregiver for her aging adoptive parents.

The musical, based on the bestselling book by R.J. Palacio and the award-winning movie of the same name, follows Auggie Pullman, a young boy with a facial disability making the transition from home school to public school. In doing so, he navigates the challenges of being seen as different by peers who both embrace and reject him. The musical also explores the perspective of his older sister in a family whose rhythms have revolved around Auggie's medical needs.

Marissa Bode is feeling sentimental. She's at the tail end of a whirlwind press tour for Wicked: For Good, which has sent her to events across London and New York and signals the end of her time in Oz. "It's just a press tour, but it's still saying goodbye in and of itself," she says as she settles into our table at Midtown's Jams.

I really hope my casting sets precedent, says Bode, adding: It's just navigating a world and a system that we have just not been acknowledged in as we should be.

Paper Bag Plan: Oakland native Anthony Lucero's exceptional follow-up to his indie sweetheart East Side Sushi will likewise melt hearts and sooth aching souls. Lucero's beautiful film is filled with empathy, insight and compassion as functioning alcoholic dad Oscar (Lance Kinsey, giving one of the most graceful performances of the year) seeks ways to make his quick-witted 25-year-old disabled son Billy (Cole Massie, in a phenomenal performance) more self-sufficient due to his own dire health diagnosis.

The point-and-click adventure game will never die, but its inability to change over time comes with a price, limiting its evolution since the 90s.