‘Jenni Takes on Hollywood’ in New Mobility

This is the story of a feature length film called CinemAbility, arguably the most comprehensive, up-to-date documentary account of the portrayal of people with disabilities in the history of American film and television. It covers the canvas, from the earliest days of cinema when Frankenstein was invited in for a friendly chat by a stereotypically saintly blind man to last year’s award-winning depiction of Mark O’Brien, a man in an iron lung who wanted to have sex — The Sessions. The film is peppered with commentary and insight by some of the biggest guns in Hollywood: Ben Affleck, Jamie Foxx, Geena Davis, William H. Macy, Gary Sinise, and A-list directors like Taylor Hackford (Ray) and Richard Donner (Superman). It is a broadly entertaining look at some of the best of the best — and worst of the worst — of Hollywood’s treatment of people with disabilities. You could teach a college course around this movie.

— Allen Rucker