Being Heumann review: A triumph of a film about the mother of the disability rights movement ★★★★

From the first second we see Judy Heumann (Ruth Madeley), she is immediately lovable. It’s 1972, and she is making her way through the busy city to protest in favour of signing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the first national civil rights legislation in America that would provide protection to people with disabilities. A wheelchair user, Heumann rides out into the street to stop an oncoming truck to attract attention for her protest. You get the sense that absolutely nothing will stop her from achieving her goals.

That feeling permeates every moment of Siân Heder’s enormously satisfying Being Heumann which tells the story of Heumann, the mother of the disability rights movement. Five years later, Section 504 still hasn’t been signed into law. Sick of the government's inaction, Judy stages a mass sit-in at a federal building in the San Francisco Federal Building, which housed the regional US Health, Education, and Welfare offices. It’s a bold move, and one with major complications. A sit-in is challenging enough, but one full of people with complex and vastly different physical challenges is a whole new level.

Madeley’s Heumann is a superb character, and her exquisite performance anchors the film. She’s ferocious yet vulnerable. The film wisely gives Heumann the space to be all sorts of things people with disabilities on screen are rarely able to be: she’s sexy and desirable and a powerful leader. The same can be extended to the rest of the cast of disabled actors, who weave a rich tapestry into their characters. They don’t just protest and fight for rights – they have fun, play games, get high, and have sex, too. It’s that kind of dimension that gives the film a richness, and makes every emotional beat soar as this lovable crew fights desperately for the equal access they deserve.

While the film does a fantastic job bringing Heumann to life, though curiously absent is any mention of her Judaism. The narrative is admittedly laser-focused on the sit-in, but Heumann’s faith was a crucial part of her identity and central to her activism. Her grandparents and other family members were killed by the Nazis, and she was a member of the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington DC, where she pushed religious leaders to increase accessibility. In her memoir, she wrote proudly of how her synagogue modified the bimah to be wheelchair accessible so she could perform a reading from the Torah. Still, Heder’s film is a triumph, and Madeley is Oscar-worthy.