Being Heumaan is no ‘inspirational cripple’ tale. It’s a story of ordinary people taking on impossible odds

Résumé détaillé

Judy Heumann and her crip comrades changed the world in 1977. Siân Heder’s film is a beautiful ode to that effort.

As a wheelchair user, I am extremely grateful to the disabled advocates of the previous generation who made the world so much more accessible for me to live in. So I can’t pretend to offer an objective review of Being Heumann.

The film tells the story of the late disability rights activist Judy Heumann (Ruth Madeley) and her diverse cast of crip comrades. They occupied San Francisco’s federal building for nearly a month in 1977, demanding the government finally implement Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act – a significant disability rights legislation passed four years earlier.

I cried from the first scene, as Heumann wheels her chair onto a busy city street because the footpath lacks curb cuts, enduring the abuse of motorists whose journeys she interrupted. Madeley powerfully conveys the determined activist’s frustration, fear, and defiance. She is brilliant throughout the film.

She is also part of an unusually large cast of disabled actors playing disabled characters.

This is not just a matter of disability justice. Important though it is to see disabled actors taking the lead onscreen, and to know a non-disabled actor won’t potentially win an Academy Award for playing a pitiable cripple – what really matters is the actors are believable in their roles.

Subtle differences matter. Non-disabled actors rarely look comfortable in a wheelchair. It’s hard to put your finger on why – but disabled people know it when we see it. More importantly, disabled actors understand how to avoid familiar disability tropes of the tragic, piteous, or boringly inspirational cripple.

Director and co-writer Siân Heder deserves recognition here. Building on her wonderful 2021 film CODA (Children of Deaf Adults), she once again provides a deep insight into the lives of disabled people – their dignity, strength and humanity.

Heder is aided by a powerful story drawn from Judy Heumann’s memoir. There’s also the good fortune of Heumann’s surname lending itself perfectly to the film’s title, in a…

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