This month marks 36 years since the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This landmark legislation, signed on July 26, 1990, made disability-based discrimination unlawful and revolutionized the way we consider all people’s abilities. Today, disability rights activists are warning that recent federal actions could weaken decades of progress toward community integration and independent living. This moment demands that we revisit one of the central questions of disability justice: Who gets to fully belong in our communities?
This Disability Pride Month, as we reflect on history and consider what is at stake, Women Make Movies is spotlighting films in our collection that celebrate the lives and triumphs of people with disabilities. From the activists who transformed disability rights into a civil rights movement to intimate portraits of filmmakers redefining beauty, identity, and belonging on their own terms, these films remind us that accessibility is not a special accommodation – it is the foundation of an inclusive democracy. They are essential viewing for everyone.
Our Disability Pride Month Collection contains a wide range of films including but not limited to:
- THE TALLEST DWARF (dir. Julie Forest Wyman) is a personal and political film that invites audiences to rethink identity, disability, and what it means to belong in a world that wants to change who you are.
- IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE (dir. Ella Bee Glendining) documents her struggle to find a community of individuals with the same rare condition as her.
- DEFIANT LIVES (dir. Sarah Barton) traces the origins of the worldwide disability rights movement and documents activists who worked to reframe disability rights as a social responsibility relevant to us all.
- THE UNFIXING (dir. Nicole Betancourt) explores, through art and reflection, the impacts of motherhood and environmental crises on battling chronic illness.
- THE R WORD (dir. Amanda Lukoff) is a humanizing, purposeful, and deeply respectful look into the long-reaching history and lasting implications of derogatory language used to describe people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
- NEURODIVERGENT (dir. Afton Quast Saler) follows the filmmaker’s journey as she discovers her ADHD diagnosis at age 35 and explores why women are so often under and misdiagnosed.
- SHADOW GIRL (dir. María Teresa Larraín) follows the story of a filmmaker who struggles with the prospect of losing her vision.
You can check out all these films and more in the Disability Pride Month Collection — honor the voices of those so often ignored and spark inclusion through knowledge! Also check out our The Right to Belong: Disability, Dignity & Community Screening Series.
Additionally, we would like to point you to opportunities to view two recent films made with the support of WMM’s Production Assistance Program:
KIDS LIKE ME (dir. Cynthia Lowen and John Cohrs), which premiered at Tribeca in June, will screen through ReelAbilities on July 28 at the JCC Meyerson Center. The screening will be following by a Q&A with the filmmakers and film subjects. More information here.
TAKE ME HOME (dir. Liz Sargeant), a feature drama that premiered at Sundance 2026 where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, will have a prerelease screening on July 20 in Washington D.C. through the Center for American Progress. More information here.
