Episode #110: Isaac Zablocki
Please note: This podcast is intended to provide information and education and is not intended to provide you with a diagnosis or treatment advice. You should consult with a licensed or registered healthcare professional about your individual condition and circumstance.
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Step into the life of Isaac Zablocki as he shares his personal journey of living with dysgraphia - a neurological condition that affects one’s ability to write. Isaac opens up about how his experience with dysgraphia has helped shape his professional career as the co-founder of ReelAbilities, a groundbreaking film festival that celebrates the talents of people with disabilities and champions for their representation on screen.
Isaac highlights the challenges and prejudices that people with invisible disabilities face every day and how through the power of film, ReelAbilities is breaking down barriers, increasing awareness, and sparking real change to create a more inclusive society for all.
He also shares insights into how technology has helped him manage and cope with the effects of dysgraphia and how many of his family members, including his son, share variations of the same diagnosis.
“The power of film is in its storytelling and I have always believed in recognizing and using film as a tool for change.”
Reasons to Listen:
Learn more about Isaac’s connection with dysgraphia, how he was diagnosed, and how it’s led him to where he is today
Learn how ReelAbilities came to be and how it has evolved since its inception
Get a glimpse into how Isaac manages the different obstacles he faces on a daily basis and the tools and strategies that help
Get inspired by the impact that ReelAbilities has had on the TV and film industry and how you can get involved
“My favorite movies are the ones that are not about the disability itself, but rather include disability and show disability in all its normalcy.”
About Isaac Zablocki:
Isaac Zablocki is the Director of Film Programs at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan with a rich background in multiple aspects of the film industry. After graduating from Columbia University's film school, he worked at Miramax Films and later produced and directed feature films while also developing educational programs for the Department of Education. He has been instrumental in shaping the film landscape at JCC Manhattan, including the establishment of the Israel Film Center and the annual programming of several film festivals such as the Other Israel Film Festival, which highlights the stories of Arab and underrepresented populations in Israel, and the ReelAbilities Film Festival, the largest festival in the world showcasing films by and about people with disabilities.
Learn more about ReelAbilities at reelabilities.org
Learn more about Marlene Meyerson JCC at jccfilm.org
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Harper: [00:00:00] Made visible, helps people with invisible illnesses feel seen and heard. It provides a platform for people who seem fine but aren't to share their experiences. It also helps to create a new awareness of how we can be sensitive and supportive to those with invisible illnesses.
Please note this podcast is intended to provide information and education and is not intended to provide you with a diagnosis or treatment advice. You should consult with a license or registered healthcare professional about your individual condition and circumstance. Hey guys. Welcome to another episode of Made Visible.
I'm your host, Harper Spiro, and I'm so glad you tuned in. Before we get into today's episode, I wanna remind you that the Made Visible Writing class is one week away and we have limited spots remaining. If you wanna spend eight weeks writing and connecting with [00:01:00] others, living with Invisible Illnesses, this is a class for you.
You can learn more and sign up@madevisiblestories.com. Today's episode is with Isaac Z. The co-founder of Real Abilities Film Festival. I've known Isaac for several years now, having been an attendee of the festival. It wasn't until very recently that I discovered Isaac's personal connection to invisible illness and disability, so I wanted to bring him on the show to talk about his life and real abilities.
So, welcome Isaac. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. It sort of feels like this should have happened a long time ago. Uh, I always think about you as my inspiration for q and as. I know I've told you this in the past, but you are like the ultimate, uh, moderator of knowing how to manage time and people.
And I have sat in the room at the JCC so many times watching you manage the people who wanna give you their. Stories, and you've always done such a phenomenal job [00:02:00] at sort of reeling people in, what's the question? What are you actually trying to say here? So I thank you for that inspiration and for, you know, thinking about my time
as
Isaac: well.
Thank you, ma. Managing the q and a is truly an art form. I've literally given classes on it, and I, and I, and I respect those who can do it well.
Harper: Really, you, you're phenomenal at it. I, I think of the number of times I've walked to that room being like, wow, Isaac is a genius at that. Really, it is definitely a skill.
So tell us who you are, where you're from, and what you do.
Isaac: Um, wow. So I'm Isaac Zablocki. I am the director of the Zabar Center for Film at the Marlene Myerson, J C C Manhattan. Whew. All in one breath. And I've been here for 18 years running the film program, and that's basically who I am in, in many ways.
Um, I, I, I'm one of those lucky people that. Job [00:03:00] is an extension of myself. So like that, that old proverb of, uh, um, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. So, I'm lucky enough to really have only worked a few days in my life and truly love, um, all the programs I create here. And the essential component to all the programs is, uh, presenting films that create change.
And I see films as an educational, um, uh, form of art, and I'm lucky enough to do that on the day to. , I was, uh, born in New York, then grew up in Israel and um, have been back in New York for over 20 years. And yeah, happy to dive in deeper there too, where it matters. .
Harper: Awesome. I love it. So what's interesting is I've attended several film festivals that you have put on the other Israel festival as well as real abilities, and you've done such a phenomenal job putting these out into the world.
And I have sat in the theater and at home. Watching so many [00:04:00] amazing films, especially the shorts, they've always been my favorite. But what's interesting is I've known you for several years. We've met, we've emailed, we've been in touch, and it wasn't until me seeing you post on Facebook that you were on a podcast that I decided to listen to.
That you have your own connection to real abilities. And I think what's interesting is you, as the co-founder of Real Ability is and oftentimes the moderator and and involved in the discussions that are happening, the q and a that I mentioned before is you wouldn't really know that, or at least I didn't know that.
So can you take us back to your connection to dysgraphia and how you got diagnosed and how that sort of led to where you are today with wanting to make an impact in the film industry?
Isaac: Um, first of all, thank you for listening, and, um, and, and, and there's a lot there and there's a lot of important questions here to dive into in terms of invisible disabilities and how that connects to my professional journey and personal [00:05:00] journey with real abilities.
I, I mean, the truth is, I'll be really honest when I started real abilities. Sure. I, I, and this, I hear this all the time from people with visible disabilities. You know, you don't put you, it wasn't the culture to put your disability out there. I think that's something that's changing. And something like dysgraphia, which is like in the family of dyslexia, there, there was definitely downsides to putting it out there on the professional level.
And uh, you know, you never know who has prejudices, who has uh, um, , how it might hold you back if they knew that. So it wasn't something that I was kind of flaunting in any way and kind of kept it to myself, obviously was a big part of my identity and was a big part of why I do what I do. But it was kind of, um, not, not, not even in the forefront of my brain to really mention.
This kind of thing in relation to real abilities. There's also, there, there's more there, there's also the hierarchy of disability there, and it's kind of like, you know, [00:06:00] almost awkward when you're on a panel with somebody in a wheelchair who has a visible disability and you're like, I'm I, I have a disability too.
And this is kind of, I, I contend with this constantly within the disability world as far as should all these disabilities go together. Should they should. There, you know, obviously legally there's no hierarchy, but on a cultural level there is. And, uh, Crip Camp, I think, uh, that movie brings it up a little bit, how they talked about how even in their camp, and this happens in absolutely any society, um, you know, there were, um, the people, um, who had cerebral palsy were lower down than, um, the people who were simply, um, uh, physically disabled or something like that.
There, there's kind of, uh, a different treatment and, and actually there's this question of the ownership of disability. I know that for l it was very interesting on that podcast that you, um, listened to, which was done by understood. You might have noticed that they don't refer to learning disabilities as disabilities.
They say learning differences, which I totally respect for those who want to [00:07:00] see it that way. And, but that really means that they see a stigma, which might be true. To, um, the word disability Is that, uh, is that something that you should try to change by actually owning the word, which is something that I've learned completely through my experience with real abilities?
Or is that something that maybe you need to find, um, the, the comfortable place for people to, to feel a connection to their. Disability or difference? Um, differences and disabilities are all completely okay , and, and there should be no
Harper: problem. There's a lot of language around invisible illness and disability that's shifting and everyone has their different perspective of how they want to be referred to as you know.
And I think what's interesting that you bring up that I think about very often is a lot of people will tell me about their health conditions and often compare to mine and go. But it's not as serious as yours. And then I think about people with my condition. That [00:08:00] have more severe cases of mine, and I think the same way about them.
So there's no one right way of this. And ultimately, we all are dealing with something and the severity may be more extreme than one for one person than another, but ultimately you're still living with it. And however you navigate that and however you see that, and however you own that is what's you know, right for you.
So I'm interested to hear more. About how real abilities was developed given the fact that it was not personal or intentionally personal to you when you created it 15 years ago? Interestingly, with my mom's first cousin, Anita Altman,
Isaac: um, yeah, Freud would have, uh, said that it was definitely intentional
Um, and, and actually, I'm. Freres, but I, but I actually agree in this case that that's there. Um, I go back to like one of my first memories of film and um, have you ever seen that movie, the Red Balloon? It was like a [00:09:00] 1960s French film. Yeah. And we, they showed it in classrooms. I saw, I saw it in a classroom setting.
And that was, that was the moment for me. That was the moment when you see a kid who's different and is being bullied for being different and then, You know, that difference is actually what elevates him in in many ways. You know, there, there you go. And I, I just use the word different over and over again.
And, and that is what film is for me. That is the power of film that is, um, great storytelling. I, I always believed in using film and recognizing film as a tool to change. Um, Anita Altman, um, had the, the, the same vision, uh, when I, when I met her. And I was doing that already with, um, our other Israel film festival.
We had a festival that was not just a festival, um, you know, celebrating the art of cinema. It was a festival that was really celebrating the art of change in, in many ways and, and, [00:10:00] Continues to be even today, more relevant than ever as, uh, Israeli politics change and, and, um, I'm getting more and more demand for that kind of, uh, festival.
So I, I came to it really, I had, um, I was getting all these films. We showed a film actually with Anita called, uh, praying with Leor. We showed a film that had to do with disability as just another film that was, uh, part of our J C C program. And there was, there was a great crowd for it. It was a great event.
And you show one film, you know, people send you another, oh, you have to see this one, you have to check out that one. It was back in DVD days, so I'd get all my screeners on DVDs. That doesn't happen anymore, thankfully. And I suddenly had a stack on my desk and I, I said to one of my colleagues, I said, you know, there's a festival here and as luck would have it, I think that week I ran into Anita for the first time and she, she was running a network of disabilities organizations and bringing us together, like that was what makes a great film festival in my mind because it was both, I came with the cinematic [00:11:00] side and she came with the organizational side.
And that allowed, um, real abilities really to take off. And little did we know, neither of us knew. What it would become. And today it's in over 26. It's played in over 20 cities, across the US into Latin America, Canada. It's expanding constantly. There was such demand for it. Films like the Academy Award-winning Coda, like really grew out in so many ways.
Like yes, we showed it here first, but also everybody who was in that film is like connected to our world and we were lucky enough to. Join a movement that already existed of creating change within the disability world. And I myself, and this connects back to that previous question, I myself have gone through that change and have watched our society change as well as myself.
Harper: I love it so much. Seriously. I, I, I don't know if I was there year one, but definitely early years and just walked out of that room so many times, just in awe of the films and the [00:12:00] filmmakers and seeing, staying through the q and a to learn more, um, and just seeing more people represented. I think there's such a need for that.
So let's go back a little bit to my original, original, original question. Um, easy to get, easy to get distracted of your experience with dysgraphia and when you were diagnosed and how.
Isaac: Thank you, . Thank you for keeping me in line. I, I, so, I mean, Now I recognize it, uh, that it's been there my whole life. And even in those early, like, you know, writing days was sent to special programs that they had to, um, to help me there.
Somehow my writing was not aligning with. Everything else I was doing. So, um, you know, my math was fine. My, my reading was not great, but, um, uh, but when it was, when anything that came to letters got a little bit tricky for me, has always been that way. Then I had the unfor, and this, by the way, has affected every male in my family for whatever reason.
[00:13:00] And it's so funny, just the other week, I, I, I met somebody who told me that their kid has dys, this father who told me that his kid has dysgraphia, as does my son. Um, cuz clearly it's genetic. And I said to him, oh yes, uh, all the males in my family do. and he suddenly realized, Oh my God, I have dysgraphia, um,
I didn't diagnose him there, but, um, but he suddenly, he says like, yes, my whole life I've have, I can't do that. I have avoid writing. I, I, I look for other ways to, to express myself and, and often overcompensate in other ways. And that was something that I was very good at and would find other. So the real tricky part for me was that my family moved to Israel, as I mentioned, and moving to Israel, they blamed everything on that change in language that I was dealing with.
Two languages, which by the way, still goes on in schools. My son, who was recently diagnosed is in a school where he, where there's uh, it's a dual language school and they learn in Hebrew as well, and they said, oh, this can't work for him. He [00:14:00] is thriving in Hebrew. He has no problem with that. It's, it's specifically Hebrew in many ways is a much easier language, um, to write.
It's very phonetic. Um, there's hardly, I mean, apart from like the, you know, a couple of letters that could get confused, there's hardly any real spelling there. It's, uh, it, it kind of, for me, not, this is not true for every kid with a learning disability. Um, so in Israel they definitely blamed it on the learning differences.
And in eighth grade, I had to take this test for high school, and I did really well in anything that had to do with non-written stuff, but it wasn't lining up with, uh, with the, with anything that was written or language specific. And so they had me take the test in English and the same exact thing happened.
They still had no clue. They were like, oh, he's stuck between the languages. Um, and it wasn't myself, it was actually my siblings. My, actually, it turns out all three brother of my brothers got diagnosed before me. One of them was lucky enough to be diagnosed in high school. Uh, actually two of them were diagnosed in high school, my younger siblings [00:15:00] and, um, One of them was diagnosed, I believe, um, in college and my older sibling.
And, uh, yeah, there, there was gonna be no question there. And we all kind of followed the same pattern somehow. My father, who probably holds this gene too, has terrible handwriting, but has really managed in his life, and it hasn't held, held him back in any way. I feel. Um, maybe he did and he, he, he wasn't recognizing it.
But I, I think, you know, and, and I also, I worked hard. I kind of write when I'm writing with, uh, in order to keep also my handwriting a little bit better, I write in this really funny way you find your tools to, to, um, to be able to, to make yourself legible and, and, you know, you find other things. But the truth is, the bottom line was I was a visual learner.
That was it. That's why I do movies. That's why the work that I do now is an extension of me because I. You know, I, when I see a movie, and it's so funny, my son just saw, um, the new, um, um, uh, black Panther mo [00:16:00] movie, uh, Wakanda Forever, and he, a week later told me every se I hadn't seen it with him. I hadn't seen the movie.
He told me. He went over it, seen by scene, every detail, and it took him, it took him like four nights at bedtime to tell me all the, the whole movie. And then I was watching it on a plane last week. And he was quoting lines from it. Somehow that got into his way. He remembered every moment, every cut, every, there was one moment where there was like a, you know, a strange, um, uh, swipe that went in kind of in a Star Wars way, and he doesn't even know what that means.
And he mentioned that to me and wow. Was was reenacting scenes and like, and then I'm watching the movie and I'm like, he had it line for line. He has an amazing brain. If you asked him to write any of this, you would see an empty sheet of paper. But verbally, uh, it's all, uh, it, it's all there. And visually, clearly things resonate with him and resonated with me on a [00:17:00] different level.
That that's, that is my language. Wow. How old is he? He's.
Harper: Okay. I was thinking eight. Eight was the number in my head. And so what are those tips and tricks that have worked for you, especially as you've gotten older? I mean, you've been in this job for 18 years, so clearly you're comfortable there. It's a safe place for you.
You're obviously well-respected given what you've built, but what are those things that you do in order to. You know, your own, your own abilities, disabilities,
Isaac: um, I mean, luckily we're growing up in an age now where there's spell check and there's, and, and computers are just like, make life so much easier.
My son is lucky enough to be, now he's working on a computer in school and that's a game changer for him. And, um, so, so having that is really important. It's really, it's interesting, like, you know, they put you in the box of dysgraphia and they said, I think with a touch of, uh, dyslexia, and it definitely affects letters, letters are different for me, [00:18:00] somebody recently told me that, you know, that humans haven't been writing all that long.
And when you think about evolution and that maybe it's not as natural for a lot of people, but, um, we, we. We force it into society as something that's like crucial and basic. So I have to avoid kind of doing any kind of like writing when I, whenever I'm sitting in any of those activities and they ask you to write something and then put it on the stick it on the wall, which I don't like those activities to begin with.
maybe I didn't like any of those activities because of that, you know, I couldn't write and somebody would look at it and it would be so funny to me. I, I remember this and go, it still happens when I do it. They're like, you know, somebody, the, the moderator of the session will be going over all the things that were put on the wall and then they'll be like, I'm gonna skip that one.
Cuz , that one's the one that I wrote. And. And, and, and it just, you know, has misspelled words. And, um, and, and because I misspell words, that means I choose words differently. So I don't always express myself exactly the way I would like to. Cause, you know, this happens to me [00:19:00] sometimes when I'm even like, you know, texting or writing with my phone and I can't find the actual spelling.
So I'll, I'll choose a different word. And that means that I'm not choosing the word that I wanna say because of spelling. And, and yeah, I mean it's definitely affected me and, um, and, and I'm, and I'm constantly looking for ways around it and it's definitely ways around it. It's not a direct route, unfortunately.
It's, it's compensating and, and yeah, wherever I can, you know, use my voice to express myself, uh, I, I'm not completely secure with that, but I realize that that's gonna. Come out better. Technology is making that huge difference, as I mentioned, and I, I rely on that so much. My brother, who probably has a worst case than me if that's exactly how this works.
He really relies on, I mean, I see so many people now who, who you know, voice say, who use their voice to actually, um, dictate everything. And, um, that will make [00:20:00] a huge difference for people. I, I've kind of, I guess because I grew up compensating, I, I kind of can fake it well enough that, um, that I can get away with a lot.
Um, my, some of my emails definitely like, you know, people are reading it and saying, why does this look like this was written by a third grader? We met that guy and he seems like he has some intelligence and, um, not that third graders don't have intelligence, but have intelligence of an adult and. Yeah, I, and I'm trying to think of other, other tricks I've used and what else, what else I do.
There's a lot of dancing, there's a lot of like, you know, how do I avoid this? How do I get out of this? How do I do something a little bit differently? Um, how do I make my presentation not have to be written, but actual verbal? And, um, when the world allows that and more and more, , I'm finding that there's new ways of doing things, then it's giving me the, the same access that everyone else.[00:21:00]
Harper: It's interesting you bring up email, because I remember when I listened to you talking about this and I went, wow, we've emailed a ton. I have no recollection of thinking, oh wow. Like these emails are poorly written or anything of that nature. So you've done a good dance with that. With your son. Did you, I mean, obviously you knew that this was genetic, but I'm so curious what, if anything, you know, about the fact that this is like all males in your family?
Isaac: Just, just, I mean, I, I've, my sisters are really lucky. . I, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I've, I have definitely like Googled stuff, but I, I, I haven't actually taken that deep enough dive to know, and I see dysgraphia as something that doesn't just affect men. For whatever reason in our family, it's, it's happening that way.
It's really interesting that my, I I, I'm one of six, so we have like a good pool of, uh, to study from and it's interesting that my, both my sisters and my mother, um, seem not to have it. It might also be societal, actually. It might not be that [00:22:00] they don't have it, but they, they were forced in more ways. They, they couldn't get away with the same things that we could get away with and for whatever reason, But, uh, I'm not, I'm not sure about that
It would, it would take, uh, it would take a lot not to show signs. So, yeah. Uh, and, and my son, it's so interesting, like when he, in first and second grade, um, before he was diagnosed, he was in another school that was like, his hand muscles are not strong enough. That's why he's not writing. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.
I could tell you what this is, and this is to an expert who this is her job to like you. Work with the kids that are, that something's holding back. And I'm like, I have dysgraphia. Every band in my family has dysgraphia. If you're showing these signs now, chances are I don't wanna throw him into dysgraphia.
If he doesn't have it, chances are that he has it. They kind of wouldn't even recognize it. They wanted to hold him back a grade, um, because of it. And then sure enough, he was, uh, you know, went through the diagnosis process and, and, and, and it was very clear. It was. Um, so it shows that, you know, not [00:23:00] everybody knows how to diagnose this right away.
And you look for, for other things, I guess, um, that might be causing whatever delays in writing, but sometimes, um, it's, uh, it's, it's, it presents itself. And, um, and to me it was very, very clear from the beginning and I was able to relate. I knew exactly the experience he went through and, uh, I was, I was able to feel for him.
Um, as I think many parents, I think even whether they, their, their child inherits their disability or not, there's definitely, you know, a parent. Has a relationship with their kid that makes them a part of that same experience.
Harper: Which is interesting considering what you said about your father of not knowing if he had it or thinking He probably did, but it was a different time.
Where probably just wasn't recognized. It wasn't sort of talked about. And I think that's a really common thing in the invisible illness space in general of just keep pushing forward, sort of pretend things don't exist for certain age [00:24:00] bracket and that accommodations weren't made back then and it just wasn't addressed in the way that it is now of let's create ways to support you and make you feel included.
Whereas back then it was sort of shoved under the rug.
Isaac: There, there was that approach of like, you know, ignoring is better and that can make things go away sometimes. And, um, that exists very much in the medical field too. Often, often it's the easier way. So often, like just the approach, I, I think like, you know, like for some reason doctors sometimes, like, I guess it's easier for them.
They don't want to, they'll, you know, Especially now these days, I think everybody who comes with a problem will say, oh, while covid and your, and, and it's your anxiety, um, , it's easy to write those things up to, to there instead of actually really thinking and diving in. And of course we love those doctors and I've had, uh, uh, enough medical issues in my family that it's when it's those doctors that really dive in and try to [00:25:00] think, and not everything, every issue is outside of the box.
Sometimes it's very much within the box, but. You need, you need to look at it from all different perspectives and really see patients as people who are coming with something real and not necessarily something that you're looking to kind of get rid of and, and ignore and put under the carpet. So, um, so it goes away.
I'm so glad
Harper: you said that. I think from my own experience, most of my best doctors are also researchers, and they're people that really wanna dive in and dig deep into what's going on with someone and really invest their time. I mean, even when I moved to Tel Aviv, I found a doctor here who's just been incredible, and I've had a bunch of friends say to me like, he really takes such good care of you.
I wonder why you and not. You know, why have we not experienced the doctor like this? So let's dive back into real abilities. What impact would you say Real Abilities has had on film and TV [00:26:00] in general?
Isaac: Uh, I'm humbled to say that it would have an impact, but it, but I, I, I, we are a part of that movement and it's not just film and television.
Obviously there's been a change in approach to disability. In general, I think, um, all of the diversity and inclusion efforts that are going on in America, especially right now, um, but I think worldwide, the disability movement has been able to piggyback on that and actually sometimes, sometimes, not always, um, get some more inclusion and recognition.
Um, that cultural change is just so crucial. What, what I really see is that, you know, the, the legal change happened, you know, 30 whatever years ago with. The Americans with Disabilities Act, um, the a d a and that, that started a process. The cultural change is happening right now. It's an uphill battle, but we are seeing more and more inclusion.
You know, it used to be that you can make fun of people with disabilities. That's what it was like, you know, the punchline in every like, you know, eighties comedy. [00:27:00] Um, it's terrible. Not to mention even worse that, you know, you would use terrible words in language. Um, this is, um, something that people are more aware of and is changing throughout America, and, and we're seeing that of course, disability is something that we need to pay attention to.
And it was always like, like you'd pay attention to every minority population and would fight for every minority population even. And then those same people I live on the upper West side of Manhattan, which is such a progressive community and people. From the Upper West side would say to me, oh, disability freaks me out and I don't do disability, and things that they would never say about any other minority population.
Not recognizing, of course, that disability is something that most people will experience in their lives, and everybody, I think definitely has a connection to, if it's a parent, a sibling, or something that they themselves will experience at some point. With aging, a lot of people don't wanna recognize it.
They see it as a bad word. [00:28:00] And that's something that's changed. I think if you take again that example, like a film like Crip Camp that puts, puts it out. in your face without having to hesitate. Um, when you look at, um, authentic casting today, I have to, I have to admit, I, as somebody who sees a lot of, uh, a lot of disability films of all different kinds to cast somebody, so the disability movement right now, and I, I'd say Hollywood, if you cast somebody, um, in a disabled role that doesn't have a disability, you're gonna get some pushback.
Um, and that's kind of something new. Real abilities has been doing for years, but is slowly entering the mainstream. I know from real abilities that it can't be that black and white. It's not black and white. Sometimes there's a role that a person with a disability, let's say, uh, I'll give an example. Um, let's say you're making a movie about aphasia.
Somebody with aphasia might not be able to play that role. We have, uh, one actor who's out with his aphasia, and that's Bruce Willis. Um, but he's not acting anymore because of his aphasia. and, and there's many disabilities where that fits [00:29:00] in. Sometimes it has to do with like casting a child and, and many other, um, and it's really about the efforts that go in to make authentic representations and responsible representations if you've made all those efforts to be as responsible as possible.
I think that's one of the big changes that's going on that's kind of become a requirement within the progressive film world. Not everywhere. We're still seeing bad examples all over the place. Sometimes made even by directors with disabilities about their own story. They'll, they, they'll kind of, they're not yet with that program.
The, the other big change that I've seen is as far as just the treatment of the subject and how disability is presented on screen, which, um, there were so many Hollywood cliches and that's why one of the reasons Reala abilities was started was to break these cliches and to kind of, Show disability. My favorite movies I always say are the ones that are not about the disability, but rather just include disability and show disability [00:30:00] in all its normalcy, if that's a word.
It's, it's kind of like, um, like just making sure that disability, that people with disabilities are part of this process too. The two more things I'll bring up are writing with disability. That's something. So many times the story's told not from a disabled person's actual perspective, it's told from, you know, some great writer.
It could be, but if they haven't experienced disability, I think that they, that they might not be presenting it in its most true manner. And I think that's something that needs, that, that's solely changing and something that real abilities looks for, to present as much as possible, to really have the stories be in first person.
The last thing I was gonna bring up was accessibility, real abilities. I, I, you had mentioned that you might not have been there first year, and I'm always glad about that cuz I'm not sure. We were not, we did not have the same level of accessibility that first year and we grow every year. Um, now a hundred percent of our [00:31:00] films are shown with open captions that's been going on since probably year two.
All of our films have audio description. That wasn't always the case. Audio description is really expensive and not, uh, most we, we, we make an effort to really be able to afford to make description for blind and people with vision loss and to not make it something that you have to ask for, but rather is there automatically.
And that's something that only in the, I'd say the last five years and we've been doing this for 15 years, has really become that absolutely every film, every conversation is brought with complete. Um, um, accessibility as far as, as much as we can do. Um, and we're always looking for new ways to make it more accessible for the audience, and that's something that we're watching.
I'm now, New York State has a law that, um, or at least New York City has a law that mainstream theaters need to show, I believe 25% of their screenings. With open captions. So, um, people are sometimes getting upset. They're showing up at a movie [00:32:00] and there are open captions. How dare we ? Um, but I think it's a wonderful thing.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm constantly turning on the captions on my Netflix too. So, um, it's, it's a great thing to have there and I think just makes it more accessible to everybody. And I think it's also about doing it right. We, we try to raise the bar there, we create our captions and try to like, you know, You, you have to make sure that you're not gonna like, ruin any punchline or throw in like, you know, uh, the, the words, um, uh, soft music in parentheses during the dramatic moment where it's gonna like, you know, kill that moment.
You have to, you have to really. I, I think, be thoughtful in the process. And honestly, I believe that the directors the same way. They make sure that all their special effects work. They should make sure that all their captions are according to what they're trying to express and being accessible at the same time.
So it's finding that that balance there, and I, I believe there's always good ways to. .
Harper: I love how humble you [00:33:00] are about this because you realize where you've learned and grown and where there's more opportunity for you to grow. And I think as society gets adjusted to this new language and that's gonna constantly develop and the the need for accessibility, you are also, you know, playing such a huge role.
What role would you say the pandemic has played in all of this and sort of shifts that have happened with real abilities or where you may have been leading
Isaac: already? Um, I mean, we learned so much from the pandemic. We were actually in print for our, um, whatever festival that was, I guess in 20. 20, when did the pandemic start?
And we were, we were in print, we were ready to go. It was all planned. And we started hearing, you know, stuff about, uh, this, uh, COVID 19 that was happening. And we, we very quickly, I think within three weeks, had to figure out what to do and moved our festival online. Out of a [00:34:00] wonderful team that took most of it on.
I actually had Covid during that period and, um, at the very beginning, And then, um, we moved in online and we were one of the first film festivals to go virtual, and we, we realized when we went virtual, we got all these responses from people saying that, you know, I've been trying, so I, I should back up actually and say that one of the ways we've made real abilities accessible is that.
We've run in over 40 locations throughout the New York metro area. That wasn't just to be like, you know, in as many places as possible and because we needed it was to be accessible. It was to make sure, cuz some people wouldn't have to come into the Upper West side of Manhattan in order to see these films.
But some people, the. Can't travel like that. And, um, we, we thought we were being as accessible as possible with being in all these locations. When we went virtual, we are suddenly getting all these emails from people saying, I have wanted to attend all my life and, well, not all my life, but have been trying to attend since the beginning of real abilities and can't, uh, leave my home.
And I'm in, you know, [00:35:00] I'm, uh, incapacitated for whatever reason. And um, this was the first year that I was able to attend because it was virtual and we made the virtual fully accessible too. So it really allowed everybody to access. And that's something that we said once we came back in person. Last year we were hybrid, and this year we're gonna be hybrid as well.
Um, we say that we're going to keep that virtual element as long as possible for accessibility purposes, and it's allowed us to cut down on the amount of locations we go to. We don't feel bad if we're not everywhere, because we can literally be everywhere when you are, when, when, when you're virtual. So that was definitely a major.
change that's come through. I'll mention one other change, which is interesting, which was, um, we got to renovate our auditorium here at the JCC during the pandemic. It was supposed to happen before anyway, all the plans were in place, but the pandemic allowed us to really do that and make our space more accessible.
And so the person is more accessible as well [00:36:00] as the virtual, which is, uh, which is really exciting. Um, we have empowered our ticketing company to be more accessible, which. Now allows them to do ticketing for other festivals in a more accessible way, which is just is, is is something that hopefully is having an impact across the board.
I
Harper: love that so much. I mean, it's, it's always nice to hear the positive effects of the pandemic and this clearly is one of them. So, given that it's not that far away, what are you most excited about? Are there certain films you're, you know, stuck in your head, or what aspects of real abilities this year are you most excited?
Isaac: Uh, that's a great question. I never choose between my children, which are all the movies and , um, and, and, uh, every year. I mean, the, the saddest part about real abilities is that we have to say no. We get amazing hundreds of submissions, of amazing films that honestly don't get shown in many other places if it's not for real abilities.[00:37:00]
And this is like the right place for them. But we only have so many slots and we, we've. Fill up our slots every year and have to say no to really great films that are totally worthy. So all the films, I'm like always really happy. I'm like, selections great. I love them all. We're doing a, an access. Uh, this is the second year that we're doing an accessibility summit, um, relating to the industry and we wanted to make it more focused, but then, It turns out that there's so much demand for a con con, these conversations on accessibility, that we're actually expanding it even more than we did last year and we're bringing in other arts forms and talking about accessibility there too.
So that's an exciting part of the festival to, to put together and it's always working with amazing people and bringing in all the filmmakers that now, especially now I feel are coming in. This is another impact of the pandemic is like last year. Every filmmaker, almost every filmmaker I think came in, they were like, we're ready to travel, [00:38:00] we wanna, we wanna be there.
Um, that's not always the case with every festival. And this year, I'm sure too we'll have, uh, a great turnout of filmmakers who it's, it's just amazing to meet these people and bring them in and make them part of this family that they join of, uh, real abilities. And when we hand them, their films now fully accessible, we try to ask them to take these films to other festivals and ask them to show it.
Accessibly, by the way, a lot of festivals will say no. They'll say no, we were not gonna show this with you, you, we were giving you the open caption version. We're giving you audio description. And they're like, either we can't handle it on the technological level, or it's just not our style to show things with open captions, but we'll show film foreign films with subtitles.
That's not a problem. .
Harper: So there's a lot of room for growth on that front. Outside of real abilities,
Isaac: I, I've, I've always said that, you know, real Abilities is a temporary film festival till like we become obsolete and it's happening everywhere. And I guess lucky for my [00:39:00] livelihood, it's, we're, we're not. Not even close yet.
I I continue to, I mean, even like, you know, after Coda won the Academy Award this year, last year, this year, you'll see that there's very few, um, films in the mainstream about disability. That change hasn't happened enough yet. .
Harper: Yeah. Agreed. So final question is, what do you wish people knew about invisible
Isaac: illness?
It's so interesting, like invisible illness and invisible disability I, I can imagine are so, so connected and it, it is amazing to me how. , the experience of somebody who has a visible disability versus somebody who has an invisible disability are completely different. And often, like, you know, you know, the person with the invisible disability, um, will not get access.
And it's really about universal design and access to all at all times. And I hope that happens with. Invisible [00:40:00] illness, that there's this full access always for everybody. And that's, that's like true equality and, and, and especially on the level, the kind of access is also like, you know, fighting against stigmas, people.
Changing their attitudes. Like so, so when you tell somebody that you have a disability or that you have an illness, you don't get treated differently. You get treated the same, you get treated well. not the same way. So if they're treating everybody badly, that's not a good thing. But it, but it shouldn't change, um, treatment in a negative way and exclude a person with an illness or disability in any way from anything that they wanna be included.
I
Harper: appreciate that and couldn't agree more. So thank you for that. So, final question is, where can people learn more about you and real abilities and attend real abilities?
Isaac: So real abilities.org is, uh, the first stop. And please check out, um, our festival in New York runs April 27th. [00:41:00] Till May 3rd and then travels to other cities around the country.
And it's gonna be exciting years. And please spread the word people. It's, it's really interesting. This is my hardest sell. I show films about politics in Israel. It's a sellout, but, uh, disability is something that, People don't come to the movies as easily for, and, um, we're trying to change that and please let people know to attend and, um, be a part of those conversations and I promise you great films and enlightening conversations.
And of course all our other work here at the jcc um, can be found@jccfilm.org is the quick way to do it. And we have weekly screenings and four other film festivals that we've run throughout the year and are really proud of the work we do here.
Harper: Thanks for tuning in to Made Visible. We hope you learned about something new today. [00:42:00] If you enjoyed this episode, please take a few minutes to subscribe, rate and review the show on Apple Podcast. Your support means the world to us. Visit made visible stories.com to check out our writing workshops.
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