Exclusive: Clip Debut From Jim LeBrecht’s Peter Dinklage-Narrated ‘Change, Not Charity: The Americans With Disabilities Act’
ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit) activists protest in Las Vegas. Image credit: Tom Olin. Courtesy of American Experience
Documentary is happy to debut a clip from Jim Lebrecht’s (Crip Camp) latest feature, Change, Not Charity: The Americans With Disabilities Act. The film premieres tonight as part of flagship history series American Experience on PBS and streaming on pbs.org. Alongside narration from Peter Dinklage, this meticulously researched doc is told through the voices of key participants and witnesses who testify to “the power of coalition building and bipartisan compromise,” according to the official description, that culminated in the 1990 passage of the American With Disabilities (ADA) Act.
Reflecting U.S. public media’s commitment to access, the show will be broadcast with English-language open captions and audio description. The streaming site and app will include four versions: a version with closed captions, a version interpreted with American Sign Language and open captions, a version with extended audio description, and a version with Spanish language closed captions.
According to the filmmakers, in this clip, “the filmmakers go back to the former Labor Day tradition, the Jerry Lewis telethons for muscular dystrophy. In the clip, disability rights activists discuss how many in the disability community hated the telethon, with its portrayal of disabled people as pitiful and broken. Featured is Cyndi Jones (who talks about being a March of Dimes poster child) and Mary Lou Breslin.”
Pic is written and produced by Chana Gazit, produced by Hilary Klotz Steinman and Sarah Keeling, and executive produced by Cameo George for American Experience.