Superfest Disability Film Festival

Synopsis: “LUKi, a charming and upbeat robot known for living life to the fullest, confronts a life-altering ALS diagnosis with the support of his friends.”

Synopsis: “A grumpy friend group of old deaf men enter a Tough Old Deafie contest. After getting entered into the competition against his wishes, Fred takes off. Can the rest of the group find him amid their wacky hijinks? Can Fred make it back home?”

Synopsis: “Tommy Wickerd, an incarcerated man who grew up using sign language with a deaf older brother, seeks to make prison an inclusive place for "his brother's community" by starting a sign language class.”

Synopsis: “When the leader of an artist residency kills the possum that’s been eating their cauliflower, the residents come to a shocking consensus.”

Synopsis: “Gerelee, a Deaf teenage girl, decides to follow her dreams and audition for a dance company despite her father’s protests.”

Synopsis: “In 1996, Deaf Social Worker Louise meets Patrick, a Deaf patient who has been institutionalized for 36 years and wrongly diagnosed as schizophrenic. Facing discrimination and bureaucracy, Louise tries to advocate for him and encourage him to appeal his diagnosis.”

Synopsis: “It's prom night, and it's Mo's last chance to ask out the girl of her dreams: Kyra.”

Synopsis: “A slow, meditative, artistic film about a healing journey confronting, embracing and releasing illness with love.”

Synopsis: “After years of debilitating period pain and unexplained symptoms, Malak finally gets a diagnosis: she has endometriosis. Despite being so prevalent, the disease has no known cause, no cure, and is not taken seriously, even by her own mother. In "I Told You So," Malak grapples with a tumultuous relationship with her pain, her body and her dreams for the future.”

Synopsis: “Daniel’s nerves get the best of him as he and his PCA (personal care assistant), Mark, prepare for a first date, but when bad turns to worse, Daniel calls on his best friend, Alex, to calm him down.”

Synopsis: “A chronically ill woman fights to get her medication approved, encountering endless phone trees, unhelpful representatives, and stock photo families along her journey through healthcare bureaucracy.”

Synopsis: “Highschooler / sixth-former Rae is chronically ill and stuck at home with only her glorious imagination and seething rage for company.”

Synopsis: “Mobility Rights is a poetic visual examination of disabled people’s struggle in South Korea. It portrays the disabled fights being seen after decades of being denied basic rights.”

Synopsis: “Sexual Healing follows Evelien, a woman with cerebral palsy, in her thoughtful and often humorous quest for intimacy and recognition for who she is.”

Synopsis: "THUNDER ROLLS! The World of Blind Baseball follows the Indy Thunder beep baseball team in their quest to win a World Championship and the family they build along the way.”

Synopsis: “In this slice of life film, 23-year-old Pan Meihao discusses her life as a wheelchair user living on her own in Beijing, including friends, community, family, and work.”

Synopsis: “One Night Stand is about a girl in a wheelchair who is preparing for her first one-night-stand, so she enlists the help of her quirky roommate to learn the art of seduction.”

Synopsis: “A meditative documentary that explores what it's like to be a Muslim with a mental illness.”

Synopsis: “After making a wish on his birthday, a lonely visually impaired man finds his world turned upside down by an unexpected encounter.”

Synopsis: “Upon using a modern art museum as the setting for a role play game that goes hopelessly awry, a deaf couple desperate to rekindle their spark finds the reconnection they seek in their shared experience over an abstract sculpture.”

Synopsis: “Mia, a young woman who uses a wheelchair and lives with her conservative father, is curious about love. When James, a young man with secrets, unexpectedly enters her life, she embarks on a bold journey of intimacy and self-discovery. However, an unexpected twist forces them to confront everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other.”

Synopsis: “As the Nazi’s rise to power in pre WW2 Germany, a young German man named Johan decides to marry his sweetheart Ingrid. Johan’s father Karl is a member of the Nazi party and Johan fears that his father will not allow them to be married because he doesn’t want Johan to marry a Deaf girl, so keeps this a secret from him. The persecution of the Deaf community escalates and Lina’s father runs a Deaf club which becomes a target to be brought under Nazi control. When Karl finds out about their romance, Johan is forced to make a choice between his father’s will and his heart.”

Synopsis: “Today, visually impaired teenager Erwan can't wait to get to school to declare his love for Agathe. Unfortunately, he first has to share a medical transport van with David, a wheelchair-bound suck-up, who tries everyday to make friends with Erwan, quite unsuccesfully. When David tries to make sure they never arrive, war is declared.”

Synopsis: “An atmospheric glimpse into a man with Alzheimer’s who lives in a rural area, and seeks to find someone to help him remember his prayers.”

Synopsis: “Unholy follows Noa, a young adult with a complex gastrointestinal disorder, as she attends her family's Passover Seder for the first time since being put on a feeding tube. There, she is confronted by pushy family members, malfunctioning medical devices, and a room full of food she cannot eat.”

Synopsis: “Ananias, an SF Bay Area artist and immigrant, performs the folkloric Danza de los Viejitos (the Dance of the Old Men). Originally from Michoacán, Mexico, where the dance originates, Ananias interprets its movements through the lens of his spirituality, his long-term HIV-related disabilities, and his search for a place in the world.”

Synopsis: “Voice Notes from Palestine, a short film by filmmaker Amal Al-Agroobi and Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), features the testimonies of several Palestinian students with disabilities from the Islamic University of Gaza. The students recount their experiences in occupied Gaza under siege and bombardment by the Israeli military.

The students had taken part in an online-course in 2023 run by Dr Iain Overton, Director of AOAV. The course aimed to teach story-telling techniques via social media.

Aya Kafafi, who took part in the course, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in July 2024, along with her father, sister, and several of her nieces and nephews.”

Synopsis: “Just because it’s challenging doesn’t mean blind people should be excluded from the beauty of the ocean. In this documentary short, Dr. Mona Minkara, a blind traveler and adventurer, takes on the challenge of scuba diving, proving that with adaptation, trust, and a willingness to access the unknown, the beauty of the world can be experienced in more ways than one.”

Synopsis: “A family’s investigation into the history and memory of the Nazi Aktion T4 program which targeted over 300,000 disabled people and catalyzed the Holocaust.”

Synopsis: “Achondroplasia is a bone growth disorder that causes the most common type of dwarfism. Facundo (Argentina), Julio (Paraguay), Vinicius (Brazil) and Fabián (Peru) are the captains of the “short” soccer teams of their countries. We see them battle ableism and compete for the prestigious Mundialito Cup.”

Synopsis: “The film follows disability advocate Abia Akram as she platforms the voices of three young people with disabilities: Tapiwa, Taqwa and Basiru. It shows their daily lives and talks to what is needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and an inclusive society. These intimate portraits of young campaigners allow the audience invaluable insight into why youths with disabilities are essential partners in getting the SDGs back on track.”

Synopsis: “A sign language interpreter tries to heal from childhood trauma through expanding idiomatic expression and minority representation in the deaf community.”

Synopsis: “The Pacific region is among the most impacted in the world by climate change. As part of a legacy of systemic oppression, Indigenous Pacific Islanders with disabilities are particularly at risk. Because they are less likely to be formally employed, their livelihoods depend on fishing and farming – which have been significantly affected by climate change. During disasters, the structural barriers that Pacific Islanders with disabilities face every day – like the lack of accessible information and transportation – can become a death sentence. Faced with the urgency of increasing disasters, disabled grassroots activists across the Pacific are championing disability-inclusive climate action. It’s a fight not just against nature, but against a world that often overlooks people with disabilities. Rising Tides, Raising Voices is a call for intersectional, inclusive, community-led solutions to the encroaching global crisis.”

Synopsis: “RENEGADES is a new digital series of documentary shorts showcasing the lives and cultural contributions of little-known historical figures with disabilities. Hosted by award-winning musician and disability rights champion Lachi, and made by a team of D/deaf and disabled filmmakers, the project is designed to increase public knowledge of disability history, and encourage cross-cultural understanding between non-disabled people and those with disabilities – who make up more than 1 in 4 adults in America today.”

PBS: Explore the story of the U.S. Senator for Hawai’i who was injured in battle during World War II, resulting in the amputation of his right arm. Posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his lifelong public service, Inouye championed the cause of justice and equality for all Americans, including people living with disabilities.

Synopsis: “RENEGADES is a new digital series of documentary shorts showcasing the lives and cultural contributions of little-known historical figures with disabilities. Hosted by award-winning musician and disability rights champion Lachi, and made by a team of D/deaf and disabled filmmakers, the project is designed to increase public knowledge of disability history, and encourage cross-cultural understanding between non-disabled people and those with disabilities – who make up more than 1 in 4 adults in America today.”

PBS: The story of a street musician, born with a condition that left her limbs unusable. In 1975, Tate Harrington won a custody battle against the Philadelphia Department of Child Welfare, which sought to take away her infant daughter, claiming that she could not provide adequate care. See how Tate Harrington’s fight to be a mother and earn an independent living was a revolutionary act.

Synopsis: “RENEGADES is a new digital series of documentary shorts showcasing the lives and cultural contributions of little-known historical figures with disabilities. Hosted by award-winning musician and disability rights champion Lachi, and made by a team of D/deaf and disabled filmmakers, the project is designed to increase public knowledge of disability history, and encourage cross-cultural understanding between non-disabled people and those with disabilities – who make up more than 1 in 4 adults in America today.”

PBS: The story of a woman with dwarfism who revolutionized the world of science fiction by editing and publishing books from sci-fi writers such as Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick and George Lucas’ “Star Wars” in novel form. See how science fiction narratives, through their speculative and imaginative nature, offer a more inclusive and equitable lens through which to redefine disability.