Academy Museum of Motion Pictures to Launch Disabilities, Representation and Film Program: ‘It’s Our Duty To Share Those Narratives’

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will launch the Disabilities, Representation and Film program July 13 in commemoration of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law in July of 1990.

Organized by Christiana Ybarra, Academy Museum director of education and programming, the day-long event features workshops, Museum tours, panel discussions, film screenings and a live dance performance in hopes of bringing awareness of disability and representation in film.

“Becoming disabled can happen to anyone at any time. When we look at the statistics, one in four people are disabled in this country. It’s a huge demographic that doesn’t get a lot of attention,” Ybarra said. “You don’t see a lot of representation of folks with disabilities on screen. And so I think, as a film museum, it’s our duty to share those narratives.”

Sound designer, producer and Academy Member Jim LeBrecht and celebrity activist Lawrence Carter-Long pitched Ybarra on disability-centered programming. And what started as an idea for a screening and a handful of workshops, quickly evolved into a full-day event.

Ybarra emphasized that when film is used as a tool for education and social change, “more empathy” and “more compassion” can be built for marginalized groups. She hopes the program inspires participants to “learn more about what people are experiencing,” and serves as a “push” to make Hollywood a more inclusive industry.

As part of the program, the Academy Museum will host three adaptive tours. At 10:30 a.m. in the Netflix Lounge, a guided tactile experience will be available where movie props can be explored through touch. At noon on floor two, there will be a visual description tour highlighting the “Stories of Cinema” exhibit, and at 1:00 p.m. on floor three, there will be an American Sign Language tour of “Stories of Cinema.”

Two workshops on creating visual descriptions for movies and tactile filmmaking will be available to visitors at 11:00 a.m. Infinite Flow, a Los Angeles-based professional dance company featuring disabled and non-disabled dancers, will hold a performance in the Sidney Poitier Grand Lobby at 3:40 p.m.

Starting at 2 p.m., a curated selection of short films centered on disability will screen at the David Geffen Theater. Following the screenings, journalist Kristen Lopez will moderate a conversation on the accomplishments and history of disabled filmmakers with LeBrecht, Carter-Long, animator and writer Jorge R. Gutierrez, founder and director of Easterseals Disability Film Challenge Nic Novicki and visual effects supervisor Kaitlyn Yang.

The program will conclude at 6:30 p.m. with a screening of “Crip Camp” followed by a Q&A with director Nicole Newnham and LeBrecht who did sound on the film. Lopez will moderate the Q&A.

Tickets and a full schedule of the Disabilities, Representation, and Film program can be found on the Academy Museum website.