“Resilience Revealed” is an Ann Arbor-made documentary about the rights, struggles and progress made by people living with disabilities. It will be making its premier at the downtown branch of the Ann Arbor District Library on July 27.
The man-made parts of the world were collectively designed with a series of presumptions, and without really thinking about what happens to people living with a disability. Nobody did this on purpose and the assumption that everyone can do certain things – walk up four flights of stairs, carry things, see – forms an unintentional degree of discrimination against those who can’t.
However, this is changing gradually over the decades with laws and adaptations to building and vehicle designs. The fact that “ableism” is part of the common vocabulary speaks to progress, but not a complete cultural transition. And Ann Arbor has played a larger role than you might think in helping make that cultural, legal and infrastructural change happen.
“They were one of the earliest cities to establish a commission on disability issues, one of the city’s that was foundational in terms of civil and human rights; whether it was the freedom rally with John Sinclair, even all the way back to the history of the Underground Railroad. Ann Arbor was foundational in a lot of different ways in supporting groups of individuals who struggled and who really didn’t get the representation that they needed. This is just another example of how Ann Arbor has been a beacon for many other cities, not just across our state, but across our country,” Zach Damon, director of the film, who was born with cerebral palsy, said. “Resilience Revealed shares the message of disability advocacy and how that’s connected moreover to the broader disability movement.”
The premiere will take place at 6pm in the main auditorium to the right of the main entrance. Admission will be free. The 23 minute and 52 second documentary was actually commissioned by the AADL originally as part of Ann Arbor’s bicentennial celebration project.
“We knew from the start that it was a big story to tell, but a worthwhile one, so we took a shot. And it turned out to be too big to fit into the package of Ann Arbor 200; Zach put in hundreds of hours of research to create a film that covered decades of grassroots, legislative, and courtroom developments within the disability community, weaving in changes at the state and federal level while not losing sight of the local community,” Andrew MacLaren, archives manager for the AADL, told Current over email. “The history of disability advocacy is actually written all around us — in curb cuts, in ramps, in all of the things that make our community accessible to all who live in it — but it is easy to forget the fact that it was people who made those changes happen, people who fought for years to get us where we are today.”
Ann Arbor native film maker Chris Anderson helped produce and edit Resilience Revealed. They dug deep into the archives of the Bentley Library at University of Michigan and interviewed key players in local disability advocacy.
“It is a privilege and an honor to live in a community that is committed to accessibility and inclusion. The tireless efforts of the Disability Network Washtenaw, Monroe and Livingston (DNWML) and the City’s Commission on Disability Issues are crucial in fostering an environment where all individuals, regardless of ability, can thrive and fully engage in civic life,” Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor told Current in a statement. “Ongoing direct support services, along with the promotion of public policies that ensure equitable access and prioritize the voices and experiences of people with disabilities, are essential steps in advancing the progress made in the Ann Arbor community to enhance access and inclusion for everyone, including individuals with disabilities.”
Michigan has played a leading role in liberal legislation to both protect people living with disabilities from discrimination and create social and business practices to find reasonable ways to accommodate them. Congress only passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, 14 years after Michigan passed its own anti-discrimination measure.
“Things that help disabled people help everyone,” Anderson said. “I remember growing up in Ann Arbor in the 80s. Curb cuts weren’t everywhere. I remember going up and down curbs on a bike, and I can’t imagine if I was in a wheelchair, and I needed to go up those things and didn’t have the luxury of hopping up a curb. It is amazing how more accessible our city has become, not just for disabled people, but for families.”
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Slightly more than one quarter of Americans have a disability of kind or another. According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly 14% have cognitive disabilities, slightly more than 12% have mobility disabilities, 7.7% have difficulty living on their own, slightly more than 6% are deaf or hard of hearing, 5.5% have eyesight issues, and 3.6% have “difficulty dressing or bathing.”
It is also important to point out that nobody’s experience is the same, whether you were born with a disability, aren’t disabled, or became disabled later in life. How easy your life is also varies wildly depending upon where you live, providing Damon motivation to make this film.
“For me, disability is all that I know. I don’t know what it’s like to go upstairs and carry something in your hands, or what it’s like to just jog in a park, or be able to move swiftly. … But since it’s all that I know, you just embrace the situation that you’re in and it is an attribute of yourself,” Damon explained. In making this documentary, “I’m trying to give individuals who are not living in a city like Ann Arbor, who is full of educated individuals, resources, is welcoming, and sees the intellectual ability of all those people. There are places in our state, our world, where their individuals and young children aren’t supported and don’t know how to advocate because it isn’t something you’re born with, it’s something that’s taught. I hope this film will give parents hope, children with disabilities hope and help them to understand that if individuals in Ann Arbor can do this far before the ADA was established, then they can be enthused and enlightened to advocate for themselves as well.”
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!
