Latest Easterseals Disability Film Challenge cast in cliché roles for those with limb differences (VIDEO)

For Rachel Handler, the annual Easterseals Disability Film Challenge is a chance to develop as a filmmaker. The Jersey City-based actress can be seen in a recurring role as a nurse in New Amsterdam, and her credits include a better acting role on Housewarming, as well as roles in The Upside, Smothered, and Goliath.

One of the reasons the challenge exists is that filmmakers with disabilities are left with a complete project to build from, in an area notoriously difficult to access.

And it’s generally a democratic competition, in that everyone has the same deadline and the same rules for designing and producing a short film.

This year’s theme is how disability is portrayed in film and television. The managers’ response was to create a mock documentary.

I wrote that script on Tuesday and we filmed it on Wednesday and Thursday and started editing on Friday, Handler said. Doing the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge is always a whirlwind, there are always moments I wish to marry captured on a film or lines that I wish I could change, or sound issues I wish I could fix. But that’s the beauty of the challenge, doing your best, letting perfectionism give way to art and finishing a compelling movie!

The magnitude of Handlers’ mockery documentary is all in the title, So You Wanna Be an Actor, where the extraordinary coach / actor of amputee-starring bit parties, as Handler played, learns to want more of cause the young actress who played by 11 year-old Michaella Metz doesn’t believe the options she hears about are things she’s supposed to revel in.

Disability is an intersectional minority that anyone can join at any time, Handler said. I learned this the hard way in 2012 when I was hit by a car and lost my leg on impact. Although inclusive progress has been made, disability is still grossly under-represented and poorly represented in movies and on television.

I think it’s fair to say that most minorities are under-represented and often inauthentically portrayed, and when it comes to disability, there are certainly some glaring stereotypes exploited in almost every character and story, she declared.

So You Wanna Be an Actor is co-directed by Catriona Rubenis-Stevens in addition to Handler, and also features Maria Pilone-Metz and a very notable score by Tina Kenny Jones.

Pilone-Metz’s daughter Michaella found it easy to play the part she plays in the movie Handlers.

The cliché parts for actors with differing limbs that Handler sends into the film are no fools for anyone.

I can definitely relate to my character in the movie, Michaella said. Since I was a little girl my family always told me that I could do whatever I wanted and that we would find a way. I believe that by putting myself out there and trying different things, I change the way the world looks at amputees. . I cannot accept the fact that the world looks at me as something other than a person. I don’t think anyone should be categorized. We are all people and we are all different in many ways.

Michaella said she asked her mother to put her in a dance class so her little girl under two could follow her six-year-old cousin Raffaela. Dance lessons have become a normal part of her life.

I finally had the courage to ask if I could be part of the competitive team, she says. When I finally joined the team, I was told that I could only do a solo, so I was in the team but I didn’t really dance in the team dances. I continued to take technique classes and worked to improve myself because I was always looking for more. I’m different, but not everyone? I want to prove that I am me! I’m not the girl with the prosthetic limb. I am Michaella. The girl who plays softball, who dances and claps in competition, who loves to jump on my trampoline, who is a girl, a granddaughter, a cousin, a loyal and honest friend and also a kind and loving person. Just like Rachel said, I can be a Disney Princess, a doctor, a painter, or strive to be whatever I want to be as long as I’m willing to work hard and do my best.

So see you want to be an actor at youtu.be/rZJfN3VB4_U and learn more about Rachel Handler at http://www.rachelahandler.com/.