We are pleased to present Holly, a short film by Ken Bailey from the United States. Rooted in themes of achievement and inclusion, the film explores ideas around competition, goals and motivation while reflecting on congenital and physical disability. Skiing and group dynamics feature in its focus, and it speaks to young adult experiences without presuming to prescribe a single narrative. As part of the Focus on Ability International Short Film Festival, Holly contributes to our programme by highlighting diverse abilities and the everyday challenges and triumphs that come with pursuing sport and personal aims. Warm, thoughtful and energising, it invites audiences to reconsider assumptions and cheer on ambition.
I've been coming for a lot of years now and it's really fun because all the people are really nice here and I'm learning how to snowboard by myself. We've been coming to Tully Road for a while. We first came 2011 and we went in and had a chat with Tim and the team. I basically said, what can you do with this? I think Holly is one of the most amazing clients that we've had a true opportunity to work with and I consider that to be one of the pieces of her story and her journey to accomplish her goals. I remember even just sitting at this desk the first day we got Holly out, she actually came and we were going to try to get her on skis. The concern that we had is her leg length wasn't long enough to support a ski boot, meaning the boot basically was going up almost over her knee cap, but we had ski boots on her and we clicked her in. I remember looking out and she was just bawling, crying. It still takes me back to think of that to a client that came to us just so driven and motivated and then we put her into what we thought was a really neat sport and she hated it from the first second that we tried to get her going. Holly was born with what's called achondroplasia. It's the most common form of dwarfism. It means that basically her arms and legs are shorter than most people and her head is larger, but it comes with a lot of complications because basically her skeleton doesn't really fit the rest of her body and so there are things that go wrong. She's had many operations. But again with those customized experiences we called stop, we brought her inside, we had a great conversation with mom and dad, with Holly and she was really here to have fun. In order to have fun we needed to make her comfortable, so to make her comfortable we decided putting a lower cuff snowboard boot on her leg that was more comfortable. It would help her engage with the sport a little bit more, just some of her issues biomechanically a little bit more appropriate than a ski boot would. To see that in my memory right now and then having seen her ride just last week completely unassisted on her own snowboard, not holding hands, no tethers, no equipment, just a typical snowboard would. When I first went out with Holly we were on a rider bar and there was straps and bungee cords trying to help her to stay in the position to have the strength and when I looked at it the biggest deal was the equipment was far too large for her stance was like she was doing the splits trying to go down the road. With the help of Tim at Adaptive we made some aluminum plates and were able to mount her bindings further in on the snowboard so she could have a normal stance and from that point she progressed to being able to go from just a couple of rides on the magic carpet to we went and did a loop where we went up Gold Hill and all the way down Sea Forever. What do we think? Yeah! What do we think? Big day like we barely made it but she hung in there and went through some emotions that most people never would have made it through. Now she's making completely independent turns and it's just an amazing thing to see that making it that far. She's an amazing athlete. Watch that cone on the left. That's where your next turn is going to be and I'm going to stay right in the middle. Okay? This is all you. You got this? Yeah. You got this? Yeah. Alright. Keep your head up. Keep that shoulder in place. Alright. I'm ready when you are. Push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push. Push, push, push, push. Hard, hard, hard, hard. Come back, back, back. Holly's an incredible lady. She wants to do things that maybe she shouldn't be capable of. She needs help to be able to do that. Rock on! We've been coming here eight years. This is the best session yet. It's rocks. She can do it by herself. Eight years on the rider bar. It took a number of instructors and we've worked really, really hard with Holly. She's one of the most amazing students that I've ever had the privilege of being out with. Ah! Meeting a person like Holly and riding with her is one of the things that makes doing Adaptive so fun. She gives so much. I've gotten so much from her that I don't think she'll ever even know. Thanks, Holly.
Filmmaker
Ken Bailey is the filmmaker behind this entry.
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