About this Short Film
No description available for this film.
Film Details
Country:
Australia
Category:
Open Entrant Documentaries
Festival Year:
2018
Filmmaker:
Susie Forster
Film Transcript
My name is Tim. I have incomplete quadriplegia — I'm technically a C5-6 incomplete quad — but I walk; I drive with my left foot. I broke my neck in a horrible way while overseas on a student exchange program. I spent most of 1998 in hospitals, and then I met Nick on a dance floor. He kind of changed my life just a little bit.
[Music]
He's teaching me, and I'm learning to allow room for disability to be a part of my life and not try to run from it and deny it, but also don't completely indulge in it.
I developed this different body which I didn't like. It twists — it's mostly the scoliosis — because what it did to me when it made me walk made me look... I couldn't feel half my body. I couldn't feel it breaking down; there's no pain.
So what does that leave you with now?
My right torso and right shoulder have limited movement. Yeah, a bit. Slowly, gradually, I've got some movement now.
Where did you start dancing?
I saw this dance company. I was working on crutches, one crutch, and I left in tears watching. At the time I was having trouble moving from walking sticks; I wasn't accepting where my body was going, and the next step I thought would be a wheelchair. These people were moving in wheelchairs incredibly, so I thought, I want to do that. I thought I could dance and perform with a disability performance group and film company. Chaos — I got right into it. I really enjoyed it. They expressed anger, sexuality, things that people with disabilities aren't always seen as capable of having.
A strong memory I have of him is him and this guy Heath — it was like they were doing a pair where they locked arms and he started swinging him and rolling him around, and it became more and more vigorous until he lifted him out of the chair.
[Music]
The first time I saw him with the company, it gave me a whole new level of— it was just a better chance. The dance that he did was a wonderful way to show his physical capabilities, and as he's aged I think his art and his sculpture is now his avenue to self-express. He's got a full workshop out the back; he's tinkering with things. He's making a mosaic over there, he's got a painting here, he's got a sculpture over there. It's a way of living that says we can live and create. I always find that invigorating.
[Music]
My ability to move, I show passion. Anybody with or without disability experiences a moment, and this one is also part of it. The way he's created his life is a living example of how you bring art into kind of everything you do.
[Music]
Filmmaker
Susie Forster is the filmmaker behind this entry. See every Focus on Ability entry from Susie Forster.
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