The story of Judy Heumann, the late US disability rights campaigner and wheelchair user whose name is pronounced “human”, is told in a heartfelt biopic directed and co-written by Sian Heder, based on Heumann’s 2020 memoir of the same title. British actor Ruth Madeley, who has spina bifida and is herself a disability rights activist, leads the film with a forthright, smart and sympathetic performance.
A landmark sit-in
Heumann’s defining achievement was securing federal implementation of Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, whose accessibility provisions had been resisted by presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter. In 1977, she led a guerrilla sit-in occupation of the San Francisco Health, Education and Welfare offices, backed by a rainbow alliance that included gay action groups and the Black Panthers.
Joseph Califano, the Secretary of State for Health, eventually conceded and signed the bill that he and the political establishment had obstructed for years. He is played by Mark Ruffalo, though his nice-guy persona and one-note performance of exasperated detachment obscure the fact that Califano initially authorised moves to starve the protesters out. The film does not explicitly dramatise this grim decision.
Ensemble and themes
The movie effectively shows that politeness and submission to the pity of authorities would not have advanced the campaigners’ cause. It includes pertinent debates within the group between deaf and otherwise disabled people about priorities, and is funny and forthright about disabled people’s sexuality. Wheelchair user Madeline Delp plays Heumann’s comrade Kitty Cone, Dylan O’Brien plays real-life TV reporter Evan White, and Jon Beavers plays Heumann’s friend Jim Pechin, with the drama escalating that friendship into romance.
Being Heumann is a high-energy ensemble film about the messy business of challenging the status quo. It is released in the UK and US on 6 November, and on Apple TV from 13 November.
