My body is extremely unusual. I've never seen another like it
My body is extremely unusual. I've never seen another like my own.
Is There Anybody Out There? is a personal documentary that follows my search to track down other people with the same rare disability as me.
The film also explores the experience of being a disabled pregnant woman, as well as the emotional process of becoming a mother (I unexpectedly found out I was pregnant while making the film).
Perhaps more than anything, however, this story is about ableism — about living in a world where you're seen as less than human — and what it takes to love yourself fiercely despite this.
Director's Statement: Ella Glendining
In my search for others like me, I hope to find something that's always been missing on both a physical and spiritual level.
As well as being about disability and otherness, Is There Anybody Out There? is about becoming a mother. My own unexpected pregnancy and the birth of my son were documented right from the day I found out I was pregnant.
Though on the surface these are two quite separate stories, they are inherently intertwined, and my body — this extraordinary body that grew and birthed my beloved son — is the bridge between them.
Making this film has truly been the journey of a lifetime, and there were many surprises along the way.
Throughout the four years of shooting, as my life unfolded, so did the story of the film. It became something very different from what I set out to make; that said, I think we have created something even more beautiful.
I want this film to reach as wide an audience as possible.
I want it to humanize disabled people.
I hope the non-disabled audience will question the way they think about and interact with disabled people, and be less ableist as a result. And I want the documentary to be a beacon of light for disabled people who are angry and sad.
But this film is not just for disabled people. It is for anyone who's ever been made to feel "other."
As well as being a condemnation of ableism, Is There Anybody Out There? is a celebration of the resilience of the disabled community and of humanity in all its diversity.
It is about disabled kinship and disabled pride. It is my love letter to the disability community and its allies.
I hope it will be groundbreaking.
