Inside ReelAbilities The Disability Film Festival Changing Culture

Movies have taught us what disability is supposed to look like for more than a century and too often the answer is a tired binary: tragedy or inspiration. We sit down with Isaac Zablocki, co-founder and CEO of ReelAbilities, and Lawrence Carter-Long, director of engagement, to talk about how their disability film festival is pushing for something better: authentic disability representation with nuance, artistry, and real authorship.

We get into how RealAbilities grew out of a partnership between film expertise and disability community organizing, why they refuse to compromise on storytelling quality, and what they mean by “reframing disability.” For them, film is the front door and culture change is the larger goal, which is why the work goes beyond screenings into conversations, pipeline building, and leadership development for disabled creators across writing, directing, producing, editing, and programming.

We also dig into accessibility and universal design, from audio description and captions to ASL and CART, with a focus on making access a built-in expectation rather than an add-on. Then we tackle AI in accessibility and entertainment: the upside of cheaper, more flexible tools like captions you can turn on anywhere, and the harder questions around AI-generated avatars, casting, and whether technology could “replace” disabled actors before the industry ever truly includes them.

If you care about disability inclusion in media, accessible film festivals, and how stories reshape culture, listen now, then subscribe, share with a friend, and leave us a review.

Transcript

Welcome And Festival Mission

Neil Milliken 0:00

Hello and welcome to Anxysh. I'm delighted that we're joined today by Isaac Swelkie and Lawrence Katerlong of RealAbilities. So Isaac is the co-founder and CEO. Lawrence is the director of engagement. I've not met Isaac before. I had the pleasure of meeting Lawrence in Washington last autumn. I'm enabling. But welcome to the show, guys. And please tell us a bit about RealAbilities.

SPEAKER_04 0:27

Thank you so much. RealAbilities is the premier disability film festival run here out of New York City. It travels to other cities across the US and throughout North America. Great films, first of all. Reframe the way we typically see disability in film. And it not only spotlights disability, but brings in a more authentic, more responsible perspective. And we use these films of every genre to bring the community together and to celebrate the community, bridge gaps and change culture.

Neil Milliken 1:02

Fantastic. And so you founded this. Did you have a background? I'm clearly ignorant, being the wrong side of the pond. Did you have a background in film and film promotion prior to founding Real Abilities, or were you from the sort of disability inclusion community?

SPEAKER_04 1:19

So even though I myself have a disability and have strong connections to the disability community personally, and maybe that's why I wasn't running away from the fire when this topic came my way, but I was coming from the film side. And my co-founder, Anita Altman, she was coming from the disability organizational side. She ran a network of disability organizations and worked closely with the community. She understood the power of film and I knew how to harness it. So we worked together to establish this. And I really, what I felt I was bringing to the table at first was beyond the organization of it all, was the quality of the films. And that was something that I felt was really important to make sure that, you know, we are not making compromises in terms of production and storytelling and are putting the best material out there. I will say Lawrence was also an early inspiration on the festival and helped us especially with our approach to disability inclusion in film.

Founding RealAbilities With Film And Community

Neil Milliken 2:20

Excellent. So so Lawrence, we were talking just before we came on air that you'd been to, I'm going to use a British phrase, dancing around the handbags beforehand, and then you finally finally decided last year that you were going to get involved. So what what what prompted you to make that move and actually become deeply involved with Real Abilities?

SPEAKER_03 2:41

Well, we've we've always we've always danced well together, and we've been really good collaborators throughout the years, even before RealAbilities was its festival, I think because we all recognize uh the power of storytelling and the importance of changing the reference point, you know, by asking who gets to make these movies and whose stories get told and who gets to tell them and how access is sort of baked in from the beginning. All these are important questions, right? And I think Isaac and I have both realized that for too long disability had been rendered in these monochrome colors, tragic or heroic, you know, sad or inspirational. And I think we're much more interested in a kaleidoscope, right? We want more perspectives and more complexity and more artistry and more possibility and all of that. My work historically has been all about communication and how do we connect with community? How do we, what do we think about? How do we share those concepts and those ideas? It was very clear, you know, after working together for nearly 20 years, that me coming to Real Abilities fish officially and coming on board, the leadership team, was a way to just leverage and maximize those common goals and those shared interests and just focus that and harness that energy.

Debra Ruh 4:03

Well, thank you for being on the program. And I never heard the term dancing around the handbag. So always good to hear some good old British terms. Um I really, really appreciate what you're doing. And one thing that I'm seeing, I'm seeing a lot of interest. I see I have people coming to me constantly going, I've got this movie, I'm doing this, I'm gonna do that. And I I think it's interesting because once again, I think Real Ability is doing a great job. So I'm hoping people won't try to be duplicating efforts whenever we can collaborate and stuff. And I know I asked you that off-air, Isaac, and you're like, send him to me. So it is about collaboration, but also the amount of films that we are seeing all over the world. I'm in the United States. Here in the United States, what I'm seeing is it's such quality. And like you said, Lawrence, it's not just, I'm so inspired. No, it's not, my gosh, you know, this is the worst possible scenario. It's really showing all the different levels of humanity in ways we've never seen before. And I'm just so, so impressed. And I've learned so much by them as well, because we learn by, we learn by these movies, but I'm not sure who to credit it for. But it feels like in your part of the conversation, y'all are starting to really thrive in ways that I don't see other parts of the community doing. Am I correct? Am I what am I seeing here?

Access As Culture Not Compliance

SPEAKER_04 5:20

We we we definitely, first of all, we're modest. We we're, I mean, and honestly, we know that we're part of a movement and are not alone in this. And there are so many others out there working before us, beside us, after us, that have allowed for this amazing growth that we're seeing. Obviously, you know, we we still have a long way to go and it's an uphill battle, but we see it, of course, and we we're lucky enough to be there really in the in the main sandbox and getting to see so I mean, we get hundreds and hundreds of submissions. We have our ear to the ground and have so many organizations that come to us with so many projects and seeing Hollywood having a little bit more intention, a good intention of uh disability inclusion, though I I think there's still, again, a long way for especially Hollywood to go. And we hope in some ways that we're trickling up and that Real Abilities has for many years, I mean, in some ways for a lot of our films, we've shown, you know, we're this is our 18th year of the festival, and we've shown hundreds and hundreds of films. I haven't done the math yet, but but a lot of our films are fantastic and go nowhere. And we become really the distributor in some way of these films. We're the ones that are showing it. We're bringing it to our other cities, we're bringing it to workplaces, to our streaming site, and and I mean, for many years, we were the only ones who who were who were providing a space for films that talked about to the topic of disability and in the way that we were doing it. And we're glad to see where that there's so much more out there today and other ways to play. And we're always glad, as I said to you earlier, we're glad to be good partners. And, you know, you know, you know, there's no reason, this is Lawrence who said, to reinvent the wheel. We are we're ready to work with you and to help collaborate.

SPEAKER_03 7:11

Yeah, I think where this work intersects and comes together is that, you know, for us, film is the front door, but culture change is the larger goal, right? And so I think where disability, where real abilities sort of sets ourselves apart in terms of disability is that we're not interested in looking at it as a checkbox or a one-off theme. Where the way we approach disability is as craft, culture, and community. And so when you look about it from that kind of 360 view, it's why the screenings that we do matter. It's why the conversations that we hold after the screenings matter, and the work that we do year-round to change who gets to work in the in the entertainment industry matters as well, right? That pipeline, it's really about creating space. Our tagline is reframing disability. And, you know, I talked earlier about communications being sort of the glue that holds all this together. And the work that Real Abilities does is about creating space for disabled perspectives and the craft of making film and leadership, right? So what we're doing really is building an infrastructure beyond basic visibility and connecting the dots between artists and audiences and industry and just looking at access in a broad-based way, not as compliance, but from a larger goal and a larger perspective as culture. What does that mean exactly? That means that access is not an add-on. It tells people that you've been thinking about them from the beginning, and they know that when they attend and when they participate.

AI Captions And New Accessibility Options

SPEAKER_04 8:51

And that comes down to our design for the entire festival. We we try to make it a completely universally designed space where you don't have to ask. And I'm this is something we learned along the way. This is not something that happens from year one, but learned along the way. Like we want to be a place at one, I remember at one point early on we said we said we don't want people to have to ask if there's going to be audio description, if this is going to be an accessible space. I mean, we want this to be as accessible as possible. And we're constantly raising the bar and finding ways to even design individually for those who whatever is provided by the standard does not work. And there's a lot of exciting opportunities there in terms of technology advancement that allows for a lot of this.

Debra Ruh 9:36

That's what I was just going to ask. So, Isaac, you started it. How is AI helping y'all with what you're doing? I think there's or by the way, maybe I shouldn't ask you that way. Has AI helped you? I mean, I'm I just had a positive experience with AI this morning. So, but is it helping you? Is there how is it affecting y'all?

SPEAKER_04 9:55

I put out there all the cautions about AI before I answer a question like that. And and everything's true and don't trust it. However, AI, specifically technology in general, is changing and allowing for so many more interesting ways and allowing for options. That that's really the key. I mean, I feel I feel that I've learned over the years that part of accessibility is giving different options and seeing, you know, what works for one person doesn't mean that it works for another person. And we want to make sure that those options are out there, and AI is great for that. I think there's in terms of accessibility, it's making accessibility more affordable, which was also a challenge in the past. It also just opens that door, like we can dream. Like Lawrence, you probably remember, we've uh had a few films over the years about the virtual world and how how, you know, lives can exist in the virtual world and what you can build there. And it shows where in reality there are so many limits that uh there's actually spaces where that are limitless. And from being able to use a computer with your eyes and and select things through your vision, that's something that uh that will open doors for many people in the community.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

Lawrence, did you want to comment? I was just thinking, you know, what that requires really is um a willingness to realize in terms of doing this work, we will never be done. You know, that that in some ways we're always at the finish line. People's needs change as they age or as their conditions, you know, develop in some way, the technology keeps changing. And so you just have to be able, willing, kind of embracing evolution as things continue to go. And I think once you're able to do that and say, okay, we need to be continuously becoming, always evolving, we're never going to be done, underline that and put a period behind it, that frees you up, that liberates you to look for the next big thing or to experiment with this option and to and to really lean into what that might provide. Now, all of these options may not be perfect, but you might gain some nugget of knowledge or some aptitude that you're able to apply to the next thing that you do. So it's really, I think, not about finalizing anything, but adding additional tools to the toolbox.

SPEAKER_04 12:13

I have I have one anecdote of like actually a real life experience that just happened two nights ago. We were having a very small events gathering, and of course, we were always looking to be accessible. And at Real Ability's official events, we have, you know, ASL and cart live stenography happening at all of our events. This was a small informal meeting, and I put on the screen we wanted to be more accessible, and I put on, I used Zoom for captions on the screen and to enable that. And somebody who was there in the room said, Wow, I used to think that that was something that could only happen when RealAbilities puts together an event. We didn't realize that you have access to that in your pocket. We could come now and provide captions right there. So it's there's there's really amazing opportunities here.

Neil Milliken 13:02

Yeah, I I think the inclusion of assistive technologies into mainstream tooling is one of the things that's excited me over the last few years. I was going to ask another totally different take and question on AI relating to into the film business, but also bringing back to sort of the disability community. And that is we see a lot of noise about you know AI-generated avatars of actors. Right? And Hollywood in general, let alone the disability element of Hollywood, is nervous about AI taking the the jobs of actors, and we as individuals in the disability community want authentic representation. The thought occurred to me that we interviewed a a chap a few years back now that that was from a company called Sign League, and he was saying what he was doing was actually getting the actors, sorry, the sign language interpreters to create their avatars and ensuring that that they were giving good quality, and B that they would then get a revenue share from the avatars. I wonder whether this is something that is even going through the calculations of people's into people's heads at the moment when we think about how media is going to be generated, because I think you've got big Hollywood studios, big productions, and stuff like that, but maybe also there's the opportunity to license out your avatars, ones that you know are representative that that are going to also bring in recurring revenue to the disability community.

SPEAKER_04 14:44

Well, I'm not ready for that yet. I mean, first of all, the disability community in terms of inclusion in film has been so underrepresented in terms of authentic representation. Like, you know, there are so few actors that have really been given the chance that that that it's a scary thought that, you know, that they in somehow, some way can be replaced even by an avatar that would give them some some some kickbacks. I want disability first to be included, and then of course to get to move up to that next level where where it can be replaced. At this point, it can't be replaced because the disability community is not being used enough to be replaced. I will say that many members of the disability community find a space in voice work, which I think is one of the opportunities within the industry that has has been a little bit more accessible. And so maybe there is, maybe this is a door that can allow it it might level the playing field in some ways, is that you know, if everybody has an avatar, you know, a person with a disabilities avatar is equal to everyone else.

Stereotypes Power And Who Tells Stories

Neil Milliken 15:48

So so what I wasn't doing was trying to wish away people's opportunities to get great roles and for us to have authentic representation. It was just me thinking about the way that sort of technology and and and the studios are moving and the impact that that's going to have on actors, and then taking that one step further and thinking about what that might mean for actors with disabilities. I know Antonio's got a question, so I'll keep my mouth shut from now on.

Antonio Vieira Santos 16:15

Okay. Thank you. So I would like to to look in into the topic that we talk a few times, which is always interesting when we have this angle with people coming from different industries. So, what type of armful stereotypes do you see most frequently in mainstream media? And what would authentic representation would look like instead? Lawrence, you got this one.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

Okay, yeah. You know, as I said earlier, the representation of disability has tended to be monochrome, tragic or heroic, inspirational or pitiable in some ways, right? So what we're talking about are more nuanced and more people, I think, not on those extreme poles, but somewhere in the messy middle. I think what we've got to really push back against is that the entertainment industry, and we're we're talking movies go back over a hundred years now, right? Has often treated disability as a narrative shortcut. So you've got tragedy, you've got inspiration, you've got some kind of lesson that they're trying to teach, right? And that the stories have historically been built to reassure non-disabled audiences instead of allowing disability to be all it can be. And this is, you know, identity and perspective and experience and and the artful way the disabled people have to live our lives. Because we're good at improvisation, right? We're we're navigating a world that wasn't really built with us in mind for the most part. And so we know how to adapt and we know how to mold. I think the deeper questions, Antonio, come come down to authorship and to things like power. I'm not as concerned these days by by asking, does disability appear in a story? But the deeper questions are who is shaping that story and who has influence over the decisions that are being made. I think that the short answer to your question and the solution overall is that disabled people need to be more involved earlier and often. And this means not just in front of the camera, but behind the camera as well. So that means writing, directing, producing, editing, programming, publicity, partnerships, really leadership. And if we get more disabled folks into leadership, that's gonna have this trickle-down effect in terms of who gets to tell the story, how the story is told, and all of those sort of nuances that traditionally has been missing, except for places like Real Abilities.

Antonio Vieira Santos 18:52

So uh so following that, how do you think that films differ from other media, let's say TV or social media, in their power to shift the cultural perceptions of disability?

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Everybody likes a good story, right? And and everybody has a favorite movie. I think what people have been missing in terms of the where the shift can happen is that understanding of what led to those decisions, who got to make those decisions, why they were made, how they were made, etc. We have seen time and time again throughout history that disability, when it has informed the work, right? When it has influenced the work, and we can go back to the 1940s in the 90s, you know, when we didn't have CGI and you had to cast somebody like Harold Russell in Best Years of Our Lives, or, you know, and where you needed an actor who had prosthetics on the arms to play that character. And from the original screenplay where he had a head injury to becoming an amputee was something that they tailored and they crafted in order to make it more suitable for Russell so that they could tell a more authentic story. Or somebody like an Ida Lupino, who's, you know, one of the pioneering women directors in Hollywood had polio as a child. It changed the way she navigated her life. It changed the way she directed films when she was on set. So disability always has an influence. The problem, I think, and what Real Abilities is helping change is that has been in the background, it has been hidden, it has been lost. What dis uh what Real Abilities does differently is we take those things that have been hidden away in the shadows and we put them in the forefront and we shine a spotlight on them and we say, this is creativity, this is innovation, this is adaptation, this is how we make these stories fuller and richer and more nuanced, so that people, and it's interesting because I think we've seen time and time again that people aren't even cognizant or aware of how deeply those stereotypes have been kind of embedded in our culture until they see something different on screen and they go, holy wow, I've never felt like somebody saw me before. I've never seen myself on screen before, I've never seen a body like mine on screen before, you know, and so those things make a real difference. I think Hollywood has a tendency to applaud the effort, right? It it really wants to show that an actor has tried really hard to become that character, and that includes mimicking disability on screen, but research is never the same as reality, and effort is not authentic by default. And so when you can bring in experience and nuance and actual living with a disability, it changes the the how those stories that are informed and it allows us to go places that we haven't traditionally seen or heard before.

Debra Ruh 22:00

That's a beautiful, beautiful comic. Go ahead, Isaac.

Why The Theater Experience Still Matters

SPEAKER_04 22:03

Can I add in one more element here? I echo everything that Lawrence said, but um, I'll also add in one thing that makes the movie experience different, I find, is the communal experience of it. And we, of course, for accessibility purposes, have been providing you most of our films are available virtually as well. But I really highlight that communal experience, which I think stands out when you mentioned all the different mediums. I was trying to think about it. I was like, one thing that really, I don't think any of them have that same level of where people will come to an auditorium together and watch together. And the impact that that has, both on doing that as an access, you know, practicing what we preach and having a nuanced space and an accessible space, a space that is filled with inclusion and opportunities in different ways and many, many subtleties in that space, to having the conversations after the film where, as Lauren shared, where people will say publicly, I saw myself on the film on the screen for the first time, it changes the conversation. It changes the way people interact and people react to disability. And it's another way of breaking those stigmas that we're looking to break through real abilities. And I think I think having an experience that both builds community and has a shared moment together is something that is crucial for society.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

There are there are precious, I think there, yeah, just to follow up on that real quickly before I forget, that there are precious few opportunities in the culture today with everything going, let's say, towards streaming or what have you, where people are consuming films in their living room where you don't get the opportunity as much as we used to to process what you just viewed through the point of view or perspective of somebody sitting across the aisle from you in a movie theater who you may never have been in the same room with and may never be in the same room with again. And so you're getting your perspective, right? There's there's an eagerness we see at Real Abilities for people to process what they've just seen. And we never do a screening without a Q ⁇ A or without a talk back. And that gives people the opportunity to make sense of what they've just seen and to applaud what they've just seen and to sort of put into perspective what they've just seen and then share it with somebody else. And that's, I think, really unique to the festival experience. And there are there are all kinds of layers added on that when you include disability within the framework of what you're talking about in the context.

Debra Ruh 24:31

Excellent points. Excellent points. I'm just gonna say this one thing. I remember I remember seeing Michael J. Fox play a role where he was just such a jerk. And I I remember it just being a little shocked by it at first, thinking, I love Michael J. Fox. I I was a little traumatized by it. And my husband's like, Deborah, people with disabilities can be jerks too. And so I just remember that being a just an important lesson years ago for me. Over to you, Neil.

Neil Milliken 24:58

Well, thank you. And I'm a jerk most of the time. And I'm afraid I'm gonna be a bit of a jerk now and say, you know, we're pretty much at the end of our time, which is a shame because this is a great conversation, and we love to continue this at at some other time, maybe after the next festival. But I also need to thank our friends at Amazon for supporting us and keeping us on F. And thank everybody that listens to the show, that that is part of the community. If you get value from the show, please follow us, please subscribe. It helps us get to a wider audience, and of course, take the topics like real abilities and accessibility to that wider audience. So thank you so much, Lawrence and Isaac. Can you just, as we close, tell people, tell our audience how they can find you, how they can come to your festivals and your screenings?

SPEAKER_04 25:49

So everything can be found at realabilities.org. We have a streaming site as well. Our festival in New York, which is our flagship festival, runs April 3rd till the 30th in over 21 locations throughout the New York metro area. We try to be geographically accessible too, and then it travels to other cities. Please be in touch and check us all out at realabilities.org. That's R E E L for the Real Abilities.

Neil Milliken 26:13

Fantastic. Thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure to have you on the show today.

SPEAKER_04 26:18

Thank you for having us.