Local man stars in ‘Crutch,’ kicks off ReelAbilities festival
There was something about this third-grade boy that immediately caught Sachi Cunningham’s attention.
Bill Shannon, a student at Fulton Elementary School, suffered from a degenerative hip condition that required the use of crutches. Cunningham, then a first-grader living in Highland Park, often saw him at the top of the stairs during recess, unable to play with his classmates.
“I just have this vision of him standing up there and wanting to knowmore. What’s this guy’s story?” said Cunningham, now a 48-year-old associate professor of journalism at San Francisco State University.
They eventually met and bonded over their shared feeling of otherness stemming from Shannon’s disability and Cunningham’s halfJapanese heritage. They stayed in touch over the years as Shannon developed a unique style of dance using his crutches and a skateboard that earned him national recognition. He even visited Cunningham at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital when she was admitted after a manic episode caused by her bipolar disorder.
After 20 years of collecting footage, Cunningham is ready to share the story of Shannon’s life and artistic endeavors with film audiences in her documentary “Crutch.” The film will be screened Wednesday with Shannon, Cunningham and co-director Chandler Evans in attendance as part of Film Pittsburgh’s ReelAbilities festival, which highlights movies about individuals with disabilities.
ReelAbilities runs Wednesday through Sunday at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland. Tickets for single screenings and the full festival pass are available at filmpittsburgh.org. On Saturday, ReelAbilities Pittsburgh will present the third annual Richard Meritzer Award for outstanding leadership to local disabilities rights activist Dr. Josie Badger following a screening of the musical “Best Summer Ever.”
This will be Film Pittsburgh’s second in-person event since the COVID-19 pandemic started. It held the Robinson International Short Film Competition in late August, also at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Executive Director Kathryn Spitz
Cohan said her organization is monitoring the virus situation closely and has received permission from all the filmmakers to screen their movies virtually if necessary.
But the goal is to host ReelAbilities as planned.
“When else do able-bodied people get the opportunity to be in the room with individuals with disabilities, and vice versa?” she said. “I think some people are just afraid of what they don’t know or haven’t experienced. If you open yourself up to attending this film festival and experiencing something on the screen ... you maybe come to an understanding that people with disabilities are just like you.”
The 2021 ReelAbilities lineup includes a mix of shorts and features in both narrative and documentary styles.
One documentary is “Not Going Quietly,” which will screen Sunday and will also be available to watch at home Oct. 5 via digital release and video on demand. It follows the exploits of Ady Barkan, an influential activist with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) whose Be A Hero campaign has taken him across the country as he pressures politicians to preserve health care rights for Americans in need — like him.
Director and co-writer Nick Bruckman, who will attend the screening, filmed Barkan as he used what was left of his voice to make real, tangible change before ALS stole his ability to communicate without the help of technology. He said the film is a “time capsule for his kids” that also showcases Barkan’s “relentlessness, fierceness, humor [and] unique vantage point on American democracy.”
“Seeing him do the work and do it in the condition he’s in reignited that passion in me for social justice,” Bruckman said. “If he can do it, what’s anyone else’s excuse? That’s kind of the core of the film.”
Though Shannon made many political statements throughout his career as an artist, “Crutch” is about bucking the storytelling trope of folks with disabilities overcoming obstacles to thrive.
“By looking at his work, we were able to go over the triumph-over-adversity narrative, and then turn the camera back on the audience and ask, ‘ What are your assumptions?’” Evans said. “I really hope we are doing something new and different and getting the audience to think.”
Cunningham agreed: “What the film shows is there can be multiple realities at the same moment. People think they’re seeing a guy with a disability who needs help. Somebody else sees a professional dancer putting on a performance. I think that’s what the film does and that’s certainly what our life experience was about.”
Cunningham got the idea for “Crutch” when Shannon called her out of the blue to tell her he was heading to Montreal to work on choreography for Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai show.
This will be the first time “Crutch” is shown in an actual theater after a tiny screening in Arkansas. For Cunningham, it’s extra special to bring a movie by and about a Pittsburgher to a film festival like ReelAbilities.
“This is kind of my life story in a reflection of his,” she said. “I’m very proud of being a Pittsburgher and proud of having this film centered in Pittsburgh.”