A First-Time Filmmaker Shares Strategies for Award-Winning Filmmaking and Effective Impact

The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation saw the potential for the extraordinary film Including Samuel to show how everyday heroes show up in our schools and our communities.

The Endowment for Health sees vast potential to reach health professionals, decision makers and community members through Including Samuel. We believe film is a powerful tool that can promote social change – especially when the subject is as compelling as Dan and his family.

Before his son Samuel was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, photojournalist Dan Habib rarely thought about the inclusion of people with disabilities in schools and society. Now he thinks about inclusion every day. Habib's award-winning documentary film, Including Samuel, chronicles the Habib family's efforts to fully include Samuel, 9, in their neighborhood school and their community. Habib, a former newspaper photojournalist, is filmmaker-in-residence at the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire.

SAMUEL’S STORY, OUR STORY

Almost five years ago, I sat at my son Samuel’s hospital bedside as he lay in a medically induced coma. He had developed pneumonia from complications following surgery. Samuel’s neurologist encouraged me to use my skills as a photojournalist in the midst of my fear. “You should document this,” he said.

My son Samuel has cerebral palsy, which means his brain has trouble controlling his muscles. He uses a wheelchair and it is difficult for him to talk. He also wrestles with his brother. He loves t-ball. When he grows up he wants to be an astronaut – or maybe a racecar driver or a volcanologist. Having Samuel forced me to look at my own prejudice. When I saw people who couldn't walk, or talk, what crept into my head? I often saw them as less smart, less capable, and not worth getting to know. Is that how the world would see Samuel? I was determined to explore the cultural and systemic prejudice against people with disabilities – and show how the full inclusion of kids with disabilities in typical classrooms could be an anecdote to this prejudice.

By honestly portraying a story I had intimate access to – our own – I hoped that Samuel would open hearts and minds to see a larger truth: disability is a natural part of the diversity of our society. The film also documents the experiences of four other subjects with disabilities: Keith Jones, Alana Malfy, Nathaniel Orellana, and Emily Huff. Including Samuel chronicles the impact inclusion has not only on them, but also their families, educators, other students, and their communities as a whole.

THE IMPACT

Publicly, I told funders, friends and family that I was confident the film would have a big impact in New Hampshire. But my secret dreams were bigger, and they are now coming true. Including Samuel is sparking action around disability rights and inclusion from Miami to Maui, Australia to Iraq.

Including Samuel has won awards, screened in film festivals around the world, and been featured in The Washington Post, Good Morning America, NOW, Business Week, NPR, Exceptional Parent and Education Week. The DVD and Viewers’ Guide are being used in thousands of hospitals, schools, nonprofits, parent groups and state agencies to spark system change in communities nationally and internationally. We’ve documented some of the response to Including Samuel at www.includingsamuel.com/effect. Here’s an example:

We showed Including Samuel at the Huntington (New York) School District. Our Directors of Special Education were there, along with the Superintendant, PTA and teachers, aides and parents. The Superintendant said the film was ‘mesmerizing.’ Dan, you actually got our administrators interested in inclusion!!!! It’s a miracle.

Bruce Curtis of the World Institute on Disability watched the film at Superfest in Berkeley, California. He became an advocate for the film and had it sent to Mercy Corps, an international global aide agency working in Iraq, where, because of war and poverty, 1 in 13 citizens experience a disability. Mercy Corps translated the film into Arabic and will soon show it throughout Iraq to support that country's nascent disability rights movement.

SWEAT EQUITY: DEVELOPING AN OUTREACH INFRASTRUCTURE

Personal motivation and sweat equity were the key ingredients to developing a collaborative outreach infrastructure. It was this outreach infrastructure that allowed me to reach out so powerfully and effectively with the film. An Endowment for Health grant allowed me to hire a webmaster, publicist, and a graphic designer for the printed outreach materials. I collected email addresses from everyone I knew and met, and built a database, sending monthly e-newsletters. I hired a college film student to submit Including Samuel to film festivals. I worked with Mary Schuh and Cheryl Jorgensen of the Institute on Disability to co-author an extensive viewers’ guide that features dozens of discussion questions, essays on inclusion and education, and action ideas for families, schools and communities.

The Institute on Disability hosted a premiere of Including Samuel in November 2007 to a sell-out crowd in Concord, New Hampshire. Since then, I’ve personally presented the film and led discussions to more than 70 audiences and 10,000 people across the country over the past year, at universities, national and regional conferences, community gatherings and at middle and high schools.

THE INCLUDING SAMUEL PROJECT

The response to Including Samuel has been so extraordinary that the Institute on Disability has launched a new phase of activity – The Including Samuel Project – to fuel and support the tremendous interest created by the film. We have just announced the first New England Inclusive Education Leadership Summit to advance best practices in inclusion. The Including Samuel Project will also:

• Create an online inclusive education community to share strategies, curricula, video and visions for successful inclusion.

• Partner with national nonprofits – including the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Council of Administrators of Special Education and Girl Scouts of the USA – that reach millions of educators, parents, children, community leaders and self-advocates.

• Offer technical assistance to families and schools trying to improve opportunities for children with disabilities.

BROADCAST

In October of 2009, coinciding with National Disability Awareness Month, the film will be released nationally to all 350+ PBS stations through the National Educational Television Association. The Institute on Disability is collaborating with Working Films and our national partners to organize community gatherings and house parties to watch and discuss the film. We will provide online viewer educational material and suggested action steps to the hundreds of thousands of citizens who watch the broadcast.

THE POWER OF THE MEDIUM

My thanks go to all the funders who believe, like I do, that film can inspire action and lasting social change. We recently received an additional grant from the Endowment for Health to screen the film for health care students and providers throughout New Hampshire. And a new grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation is enabling us to bring Including Samuel to 10 school districts across New Hampshire and lead discussions on the benefits and challenges of inclusion. I hope that the reason these teenagers stay glued to the screen for an hour, and engage in lively discussions afterwards, says something about the quality of the documentary. But I know it says volumes about the power of the medium.

Photo Credits
The Habib Family, Sage Wheeler
All other Photos: Dan Habib/includingsamuel.com

[Published 2008-12-09]