1. My Way to Olympia
The film director Niko von Glasow undertakes a journey to athletes, who compete at the Paralympic Games in London 2012. He himself is a short-armed avowed hater of sport who cannot understand how anyone could take on such an odeal voluntarily. Even more since everyday life for people with a disability is most often challenging enough. He meets U.S.archer Matt Stutzman, Norwegian table tennis player Aida Dahlen, German swimmer Christiane Reppe, Greek boccia player Greg Polychronidis and a Sitting Volleyball team. Niko neither spares the athletes nor himself asking questions about life, sport and fears. With an ever growing appreciation for sport Niko attends the Paralympic Games and travels back to the ancient city of Olympia, where everything began and where boccia playing is prohibited.
It has an average vote of 5.8 on TMDB.
2. The Gimp Monkeys
What has four legs, five arms and three heads? The Gimp Monkeys. Craig DeMartino lost his leg after a 100-foot climbing fall. Pete Davis with born without an arm. Bone cancer claimed Jarem Frye's left leg at the age of 14. While the three are linked by what they are missing, it is their shared passion for climbing that pushed them towards an improbable goal - the first all-disabled ascent of Yosemite's iconic El Capitan.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
3. Method Sampling: How to Build the Future Together
Method Sampling is explored through the works of a hip-hop orchestra, a disabled choreographer, a self-taught Black mycologist, a tiny house builder and a critical theorist.
4. Marked by Darkness (Poznačení tmou)
Short, evocative documentary on the education of blind and partially sighted children.
5. Inclinations
Inclinations began as a moment of “crip” play. The ramp becomes a source of creative movement. Dancers can move in ways that they cannot move on flat surfaces and the ramp itself becomes an artistic object, transformed albeit temporarily into an environment that reveals connection, trust, beauty, and desire. Choreographed, directed, and shot from disability perspectives, this dance-on-video delves into the playful connection enabled where disability, community, and ramp meet.
6. The Ugly Face of Disability Hate Crime
Adam Pearson - who has neurofibromatosis type 1 - is on a mission to explore disability hate crime: to find out why it goes under-reported, under-recorded and under people's radar.
7. Černobyl na kolečkách (Černobyl na kolečkách)
(Černobyl na kolečkách)
8. Hawking: Can You Hear Me?
A documentary telling the remarkable human story of Stephen Hawking. For the first time, the personal archives and the testimonies of his closest family reveal both the scale of Hawking's triumphs and the real cost of his disability and success.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
9. Our Hope
Short documentary on the Cambodian Handicraft Association which trains and supports women who have been affected by polio, landmine injuries, deafness or mental trauma.
10. Elevator Pitch
A depiction of New York’s subway as an absurd obstacle course – revealing a system that shuts many out of a city in motion.
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
11. Full Circle
Faced with a traumatic injury that renders you permanently disabled; how would you reinvent yourself? Full Circle tells the story of Trevor Kennison and Barry Corbet’s shared resiliency and refusal to let their passion for life be limited by Spinal Cord Injury. It is an unblinking examination of the challenges of Spinal Cord Injury, and a celebration of the growth that such tragedy can catalyze.
It has an average vote of 5.7 on TMDB.
12. Motherhood
Motherhood is a short documentary film about a single mother trying to secure a future for her severely disabled son.
13. Brothers: A Family Film (Brüder - Ein Familienfilm)
After 20 years of separation, brothers Adrian and Valentin spend a week together. 32-year old Adrian lives with their parents and benefits from a disability pension. Valentin, barely older, seems to have found his autonomy. Brothers - A Family Film is a dizzying dive into a relationship as impossible as it is established, where violence and tenderness are one and the same.
14. Rose Ayling-Ellis: Signs for Change
Actress and Strictly Come Dancing 2021 winner Rose Ayling-Ellis reveals the daily challenges, discrimination, and barriers which are faced by deaf individuals.
15. Whereabouts of Sound (音の行方)
As they play carefree music, their musicianship is met with surprise, wonder, and sometimes even laughter. Captivating all who watch, Otoasobi Project’s rich variety of expression reshapes the concept of improvised music. Formed in 2005 in Kobe, Japan, Otoasobi Project has some 50 members, including people with intellectual disabilities, musicians, and music therapists, who pursue music and well-being through improvised performances. After many years of numerous workshops, concerts, and other activities, they even held their first tour in the UK in September 2013. The movie “Whereabouts of Sound” depicts the appeal of the improvised music Otoasobi creates, and the beauty of its natural, honest expression.
16. Still Tomorrow (摇摇晃晃的人间)
Yu Xiuhua was raised to hope for little from her life in the rural Chinese province of Hubei. At 19, Xiuhua’s mother encouraged her to marry a man nearly twice her age, fearful no one else would accept a wife with Xiuhua’s condition — cerebral palsy. But as her 20th anniversary approaches, Xiuhua’s poetry goes viral, and she becomes the voice of a rising feminist movement throughout China.
It has an average vote of 8.2 on TMDB.
17. The Current: Explore the Healing Powers of the Ocean
Documentary - The Current tells the story of individuals from all walks of life that have faced incredible obstacles, found the drive to overcome their disabilities, and have through water sports become real everyday heroes. - Bethany Hamilton, Missy Franklin, Mallory Weggemann, Anthony Robles, Jesse Murphree
It has an average vote of 6.4 on TMDB.
18. Champions (Champions)
Champions is a documentary in which filmmaker Helgi Piccinin follows the quests of his autistic brother Stéphane and his atypical friend Audrey. Born with an intellectual difference, Stéphane and Audrey want to prove to the world that they too can win medals. For three intense years marked by training and competitions, we follow them until the end of their ambitious dream, that of competing at the Special Olympics World Games in Dubai. Intertwining both sports odyssey and human portrait, this feel-good documentary offers an immersion into a fascinating world where athletes with an intellectual difference are at the forefront.
19. Plating Blind
Nathan Quinell is a fully trained chef… he also happens to be legally deaf and blind. That’s never stopped him from chasing his dreams to become a full-time cook, but now Nathan must prove himself to his peers, his students and potential employers.
20. Voices from the Shadows
‘Voices from the Shadows’ shows the brave and sometimes heartrending stories of five ME patients and their carers, along with input from Dr Nigel Speight, Prof Leonard Jason and Prof Malcolm Hooper. These were filmed and edited between 2009 and 2011, by the brother and mother of an ME patient in the UK. It shows the devastating consequences that occur when patients are disbelieved and the illness is misunderstood. Severe and lasting relapse occurs when patients are given inappropriate psychological or behavioural management: management that ignores the severe amplification of symptoms that can be caused by increased physical or mental activity or exposure to stimuli, and by further infections. A belief in behavioural and psychological causes, particularly when ME becomes very severe and chronic, following mismanagement, is still taught to medical students and healthcare professionals in the UK. As a consequence, situations similar to those shown in the film continue to occur.
