Follow this section to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Update your preferences in Account Settings Follow this tag to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Update your preferences in Account Settings Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Update your preferences in Account Settings Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Update your preferences in Account Settings “Like Dog Day Afternoon with disabled people.” This is how director Siân Heder describes a portion of disability rights activist Judy Heumann’s memoir concerning the enforcement of Section 504, an aspect of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. This provision meant that people could not discriminate against anyone with disabilities in public buildings, from schools to universities, hospitals to the halls of government. It also meant those buildings had to be compliant and physically accessible to disabled people. But five years later, in 1977, Section 504 was still not enforced, and Heumann was not going to let that stand. The year before, newly elected President Jimmy Carter had promised to enforce Section 504, but his secretary of health, education and welfare, Joseph Califano, said he needed more time to review it. Exasperated and furious over their inaction, Heumann and a group of disability activists staged a sit-in at the San Francisco Health, Education and Welfare federal building on Apr 5, 1977. It was the longest occupation of a federal building in U.S. history. Heder, whose previous film CODA won the Oscar for Best Picture, has turned that portion of Heumann’s story into the cinematic vision she had while reading about it. Her new film Being Heumann tells the story of Judy Heumann (Ruth Madeley) and the courageous activists who helped enforce Section 504. TIME spoke with Heder, Madeley, and Kristen Joiner, executive producer and co-writer of Heumann’s memoir Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist , about Heumann's story and how the group brought the historic sit-in to life. Read more: I've Been Disabled Since I Was a Child. Co-Writing Being Heumann Still Taught Me So Much Judy Heumann speaks during a 'Section 504' demonstration in UN Plaza, San Francisco, Calif., April 5, 1977 HolLynn D'Lil/Getty Images Joiner first met Heumann in 2016. “Judy was deciding whether or not she wanted to work with me,” she recalls. “I immediately warmed to her because she was so direct, and I was drawn to that. My first thought when I met her was: ‘How did I not know about this story?’” Joiner told Heumann that it wasn’t until she heard her story that she understood that disability rights is a civil rights issue. “Judy’s reaction set the tone for our whole relationship. She said: ‘Let me get this straight. You have a background in human rights, and you never saw disability as a civil rights issue. Why do you want to write my story?’ I said: ‘Because I have this enormous blind spot.’” Judy snapped back without missing a beat: “Don’t say blind spot.” Joiner earned Heumann’s trust, maintaining a profound respect for the activist’s conviction in her beliefs and willingness to say what she thought without apology. They wrote Heumann’s memoir together over several years. That very comment about the word “blind spot” even features in Heder’s film during one of several heated conversations between activists at the sit-in. Heder came across Heumann’s story in 2020. At Sundance, a friend of hers working on the documentary Crip Camp , which would go on to earn an Oscar nomination, told Heder she had to make a movie about Heumann. So the filmmaker read her memoir and sent a cold email about making a film about her. “She wrote me back right away and said, ‘I’m in the last 24 hours of making a decision about a filmmaker, and if you can meet today at 5, you can be in the running,” recalls Heder. Heder made herself available and pitched her idea to Heumann, highlighting
También lo cubren: TIME.
Ver más en News Today