“The biggest barrier to change is this tiny sliver of fear that people have surrounding disability, and I made this film to push people over that barrier.”
The new documentary Rising Phoenix: A New Revolution grabs viewers’ attention from the opening, pulling both disabled and nondisabled audiences in to become immersed in a world full of authentic disability representation.
The film is directed by Sheridan O’Donnell, who was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease while having an active career as a filmmaker. This has slowly rendered him legally blind. Trying to navigate this new world of being disabled, O’Donnell seeks out accomplished disabled individuals from multiple sectors and walks of life, and highlights their struggles, and eventual achievements. The point of O’Donnell’s film is not to showcase these achievements in spite of disability; rather, he showcases these achievements in spite of the social perception, lack of access, and lack of understanding that too often befalls the disability community.
With a goal of redefining the world’s image of disability, the film features a variety of disabled individuals including actor Lauren Ridloff (Eternals), Paralympic Gold Medalists Ezra Frech (Track and Field) and Anastasia Pagonis (Swimming), filmmaker Jim LeBrecht (Crip Camp), MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemel [...]