New AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Film Marks the 35th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act

The opening images of the forthcoming AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentary Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act aptly set the stage: a grainy shot of the Capitol building’s dome against a low gray sky, panning down into the rotunda to a crowd of protesters chanting, “Access is a civil right!” The film explores the decades-long bipartisan effort to pass one of the most significant civil rights bills in U.S. history.

An acknowledgment of the activists who put their bodies on the line for this pivotal legislation, a meticulously researched history of generations of struggle, an illustration of democracy at work, and so much more, the film is at once multivalent and deeply focused.

We sat down with Jim LeBrecht (JL) and Chana Gazit (CG), the director and writer/producer, respectively, to discuss the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), their experience crafting the documentary, and their hopes for its impact.

How did you come to make this film?

CG: When Cameo George (Executive Producer of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE) approached me, my first thought was, “What could possibly be so interesting about the passage of legislation?” I quickly learned that it is one of the most fascinating, complex, and important stories I’ve ever had the privilege to delve into.

My second thought was of Jim.

JL: As a filmmaker and member of the disabled community, I felt this immense responsibility to dig deeply and make sure that the stories and people involved get their due. Although I wasn’t there crawling up the steps of the Capitol like my friends in the film were, I’ve benefited from this legislation and know the people who fought for it. I’ve got a horse in this race.

My friends are in this film—whether they were interviewed or featured in archival footage. It’s their accomplishment, and I want the community to feel this is a good film. Because there’s a lot of power in films to start conversations and change minds.

The film is composed of a lot of remarkable archival footage as well as many powerful interviews with people involved in the movement. What work went into that?

CG: It was incredibly labor intensive in the best possible way. Of course, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is a series that values deeply researched, deeply investigated subjects. As a team of just four, including producers Hilary Klotz Steinman and Sarah Keeling, this required a tremendous amount of work.

I’ve worked on history films where you have two books and plenty of resources laid out in front of you. This was something different. We contacted about 50 archives for footage and interviewed a staggering number of people.

But I really think the story carried itself—it was written by the witnesses, the participants.

JL: Given what we had to work with regarding runtime and budget, we pulled off quite the achievement. When you’re a documentarian, you know how to make things stretch and get the most with the resources at hand. I made an assembly of 82 minutes; we had to cut 30 minutes.

CG: That’s always the most painful part of making a film—what you have to cut.

Were there any things that surprised you in the making of the film?

CG: It’s why the film is, for me, inspirational on a political level—what people can achieve when they come together and how government can function in a nonpartisan way.

JL: It took a shift of people on both sides of the aisle to say, “This is an issue of civil rights, human rights.” And the beautiful thing about disability is that it cuts across all strata of society— conservative or liberal, wealthy or working class, etc.

Everyone either experienced a disability or understood on some level what their relatives or friends were going through, and they thought, “We could change this. We could make it so people weren’t living in nursing homes or institutions, we could provide protections so people weren’t denied jobs based on biases, or were offered a job but unable to access the damn building.”

And this is a lesson for today, for people who have fears about the cost of accessibility, or refrain from doing something good because they don’t want it to look like someone from the other side of the aisle is accomplishing something good.

I’m tired of that. I think a lot of us are. And I think we want to see people working together to keep our country the extraordinary place it is. Not that long ago, people talked, and compromised, and found common ground!

What are your hopes for the film?

CG: Who was it who said, “If we’re not born with a disability, we’re waiting for it to come?” I would like for people leaving this film to feel their own humanity more deeply and connect to everybody’s humanity more deeply.

JL: For far too long, we’ve been told to feel less than. Why do we have to prove that we matter? Why do we have to prove that we’re not a burden to society?

I really hope that we start important conversations. One of the important lessons I learned growing up is that a film like this can give people a sense of pride and help reframe what disability means. Often, we think about disability as purely a medical condition, a failure, or a tragedy, instead of a natural part of living.

And that there’s a community—I relate to my disability culturally and share an experience with so many other people. And I have a great deal of pride in my community, the people who have made my life easier, who paved the way for me to have a more accessible, enjoyable life.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE’s Change Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act premieres on Tuesday, March 25 on GBH 2 at 9 p.m. ET and you can stream on PBS.org and the PBS app.A longtime leader in media accessibility, GBH will broadcast the film with open captions and audio description, written and provided by the team in GBH’s Media Access Group. Viewers who stream on the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE website , PBS.org , and on the PBS app will have access to four versions of the film: one with closed captions, one interpreted with American Sign Language and open captions, another with extended audio description, and one with Spanish language closed captions. Viewers who stream on YouTube will have access to the captioned, extended audio description versions of the film through July.

Read about GBH’s accessibility history , and learn about its ongoing commitment to people with disabilities by visiting The Carl and Ruth Shapiro National Center for Accessible Media page and GBH Media Access Group page. If you have additional questions about Accessibility at GBH, please contact GBH’s Executive Director of Accessibility, Donna Danielewski at accessibility@wgbh.org .