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Talkhouse

Ian Brennan is a Grammy-winning producer (Tinariwen) who has produced three other Grammy-nominated albums and published eight books while all the while teaching violence prevention around the world since 1993 at places like UC Berkeley, the Betty Ford Center, and the National Accademia of Science (Rome). His latest book is Missing Music: voices from where the dirt roads end.

Ian Brennan

Music

Ian Brennan and Gaelynn Lea Talk the Americans with Disabilities Act, 35 Years Later

Samuel Habib (he/him) and Dan Habib (he/him) co-directed the new documentary <a href="https://www.rideaheadfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Ride Ahead</a>, about Samuel’s quest as a disabled adult to fulfill his dreams to moving out of his family’s home, establish his career and start dating, which is <a href="https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/rideahead/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">now streaming on POV</a>. They also co-directed the Emmy Award-winning My Disability Roadmap, a 2022 New York Times Op-Doc, a Critics Choice nominee and featured at festivals including Hot Docs, Doc NYC, and Hot Springs. Samuel was also a story consultant on the nationally broadcast film Mr. Connolly Has ALS, and has presented nationally on disability rights. He is a community college student and works at the Westchester Institute for Human Development. Samuel experiences GNAO1 Neurodevelopmental Disorder, a rare genetic disorder that caused his cerebral palsy, epilepsy and speech challenges. Dan is the director, producer and cinematographer of the nationally broadcast (public television) documentary films Intelligent Lives, Who Cares About Kelsey?, Mr. Connolly Has ALS, and Including Samuel. He served on the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities under President Obama. He is currently the Inclusive Communities Project Director at the Westchester Institute for Human Development.

Samuel Habib and Dan Habib

Film

Video Premiere: Samuel Habib’s My Inclusive Life

Reid Davenport makes documentaries about disability from an overtly political perspective. His latest feature, <a href="https://www.lifeafterfilm.com/screenings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Life After</a>, which coalesces the missing voices of the disability community in the debate about assisted dying, is now playing at Film Forum in New York City. The film won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Reid’s first feature, I Didn’t See You There, won the Directing Award for U.S. Documentary at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the McBaine Bay Area Documentary Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival. It had a national broadcast on POV in 2023. In 2020, Reid was named to DOC NYC’s “40 Filmmakers Under 40,” was a 2017 TED fellow and gave a TED Talk about incorporating his own literal body into his filmmaking. Reid holds an MFA in Documentary Film &amp; Video from Stanford University and a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication from the George Washington University.

Reid Davenport

As a Disabled Filmmaker, I Don’t Owe You Radical Transparency

Daisy Friedman is a writer and director based out of New York City. Her history as a multi-organ transplant recipient has drawn her to create work that centers on the intersections of tradition, intimacy, embodiment, and disability. Her latest short film, Unholy, had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and went on to screen at SXSW. Her previous short film, As You Are (2023), has screened at prestigious film festivals such as Frameline, Inside Out, Outfest, the Chicago International Film Festival and the National Film Festival For Talented Youth. The film has received numerous awards, including the U.S. Narrative Short Grand Jury Prize Special Mention at Outfest 2023 and the NewFest35 Emerging Filmmaker Award. She received the 2023 Colin Higgins Foundation Youth Filmmaker Grant and is currently a winter/spring 2025 Guest Resident at the Woodward Residency. Daisy received a 2020 National Scholastic Gold Medal and American Voices Award for her poetry. She is a graduate of Barnard College’s Film Studies program.

Daisy Friedman

How Disability Activism Was a Catalyst for My Film Career

John Waters has written and directed sixteen movies, including Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos, Polyester, Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom and A Dirty Shame. He is also a photographer whose work has been shown in galleries all over the world and the author of several books, including Shock Value, Crackpot, Art: A Sex Book (cowritten with Bruce Hainley), Role Models and the 2014 bestseller Carsick, which chronicles his adventure hitchhiking across the United States in May 2012. The restoration of Multiple Maniacs is out now through Janus Films.

John Waters

Learn a Life Lesson or Two from John Waters and Raymond Antrobus

Susie Ulrey fronts the Tampa, Florida-based band Pohgoh. Their latest record, du und ich, is out now on Spartan Records.

Susie Ulrey

On Touring and Songwriting with Multiple Sclerosis

Kelsey Peterson is the co-director, producer and subject of the new documentary <a href="https://www.movemedoc.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Move Me</a>, which world premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and is currently steaming as part of the <a href="https://reelabilities.org/newyork/film/move-me/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ReelAbilities Film Festival</a>. She was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and received her BFA in Dance from the University of Montana in 2008, and later, her yoga teacher certification from CorePower Yoga. Her previous path was interrupted when she sustained a spinal cord injury in 2012 and became paralyzed from the chest down. But Kelsey continues to dance, now from a wheelchair. She is a dancer, choreographer, writer, and filmmaker. She currently serves as co-director, choreographer and dancer on A Cripple’s Dance, a live music and dance production featuring inter-abled artists. (Photo by Mercedes Jelenik, courtesy of Submerged Film LLC.)

Kelsey Peterson

Undefined: A Lifelong Journey with Adaptation and Self-Love

Aaron Schimberg&#8216;s latest film as writer-director, <a href="https://www.kinolorber.com/film/chained-for-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chained for Life</a>, starring Adam Pearson and Jess Weixler, is in select theaters from September 11 through Kino Lorber. His debut feature Go Down Death (2013) was called “an astonishing out-of-nowhere film” by Filmmaker magazine and “a stunning midnight movie in the tradition of Jodorowsky and The Saragossa Manuscript” by The Dissolve. He has received grants and fellowships from Cinereach, New York Film Festival Artist Academy, Frontiéres and the IFP Labs. Chained for Life is his second feature film.

disability