Susanna Sweeney-Martini, a DO-IT participant and now UW student, is
featured. Although we provided access to Susanna and her family, the DO-IT
Summer Study program and UW campus, and old footage from DO-IT, we were
not otherwise involved in the production.
Sheryl
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheryl Burgstahler, Ph.D.
Director DO-IT, AccessSTEM, UW Accessible Technology Svs; Co-Dir AccessIT
Computing & Communications
University of Washington, Box 355670
Seattle, WA 98195
206-543-0622 FAX 206-221-4171
http://staff.washington.edu/sherylb
[log in to unmask]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 02 Sep 2004 13:48:08 -0700
From: Sue Yasuko Abe <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: DO-IT Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
To: DO-IT Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [Doitchat] FREEDOM MACHINES ON PBS 9/14 - Doc/Film Challenges
Society's Basic Notions About Disability
> P.O.V.'s 'Freedom Machines' Looks at Disability Through the
> Lens of Technology
>
> Tuesday, Sept. 14 on PBS
>
> For Nation's 54 Million Citizens with Disabilities, Film
> Challenges Society's Basic Notions About Disability
>
> Narrated by Peter Dinklage, star of 'The Station Agent'
>
> An Independent Television Service (ITVS) Co-presentation
>
> High school student Latoya Nesmith of Albany, N.Y. dreams
> of becoming a translator at the United Nations as she
> completes her classroom assignments using a keyboard that
> mitigates her limited dexterity. Floyd Stewart, paralyzed
> in mid-life by a car accident, uses assistive technologies
> to run Middle Tennessee's Center for Independent Living.
> Blind physicist Dr. Kent Cullers taught computers to do
> what his ears can do, and now leads the Search for
> Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Palo
> Alto, Calif. Susanna Sweeney-Martini is completing her
> college education in Seattle with the aid of a power
> wheelchair and voice-input software.
>
> These are a few of the people whose stories are at the center of
> Freedom Machines, a new documentary having its broadcast premiere
> Tuesday, Sept. 14 at 10 p.m. (check local listings) on PBS'
> acclaimed non-fiction series P.O.V. This poignant and
> thought-provoking film tells the stories of people typically
> labeled (and dismissed) as "disabled", whose determination and
> access to inventive new technologies are transforming their lives
> and their communities.
>
> Jamie Stobie and Janet Cole's Freedom Machines is part of the
> 17th season of PBS's acclaimed P.O.V. series. P.O.V. continues on
> Tuesdays, 10 p.m., through Sept. 28 on PBS. A winter special
> completes the 2004 season. American television's longest-running
> independent documentary series, P.O.V. is public television's
> premier showcase for point-of-view, non-fiction films.
>
> Freedom Machines is not a profile of "unusual" people who have
> "overcome their disabilities" or succeeded "despite" their
> physical conditions. Rather, in showing what is possible, the
> film asks viewers to question accepted ideas of what "disability"
> means. And access to assistive technologies is properly set in
> the context of civil rights and public policy rather than limited
> to the realm of charity or good will.
>
> Freedom Machines replaces romantic notions of gallant individual
> struggles with the reality of society's attitudes and choices
> about assistive technologies. Who has access and who doesn't?
> What decisions do we make about the design of our buildings,
> streets, transportation, and media? Who bears the costs and who
> benefits? Do we see assistive technologies as burdensome
> disability devices, or, as inventor Dean Kamen says, "enabling
> devices?" And if they are enabling devices, what do they enable
> us - all of us - to do?
>
> Freedom Machines shows what is now possible and what will soon be
> possible. But, as the film demonstrates, the existence of the
> technology is not enough to ensure its use. Liberating new
> technologies remain out of reach for many of America's 54 million
> disabled people. As Jackie Brand, founder of the Alliance for
> Technology Access and mother of one of the women profiled in
> Freedom Machines summarizes, "It's a terribly frustrating thing to
> look at something that you know would change your life so
> enormously and be so powerful for you, and to know it's not to be
> had because you don't have the resources and the society has not
> decided that it's important enough for you to have."
>
> The lives of the people we meet in Freedom Machines underscore the
> fact that the promises of 1990's landmark Americans with
> Disabilities Act, which mandated equal access to education,
> employment, and other essential activities and services for the
> country's largest minority group, remain largely unfulfilled. The
> benefits of new technology, new laws, and new design concepts are
> being held hostage to lack of funding, information, and political
> will.
>
> As a result, society as a whole misses the chance to maximize
> human potential and productivity. As evidence, Freedom Machines
> explores the concept of "universal design" (UD), which employs
> technology and architecture to make environments adaptable to the
> particular needs and abilities of a wide range of individuals. In
> doing so, UD is breaking down social distinctions between "abled"
> and "disabled." For example, the simple curb cut, once
> controversial, today facilitates the movements of mothers with
> baby carriages, delivery people with carts, even skateboarders,
> along with people who use wheelchairs.
>
> Narrated by actor Peter Dinklage, star of the acclaimed film The
> Station Agent, Freedom Machines is a timely and dramatic look at
> technology's new "enabling" wonders, and at the contradictions in
> social policy and attitudes that prevent their full employment by
> all those who need or can benefit from them. Freedom Machines
> dares to envision a genuinely inclusive community, a community
> that benefits from each of its unique members contributing at
> their full capacity.
>
> About The Filmmakers:
>
> Jamie Stobien Producer/Director
>
> Jamie Stobie's career spans a quarter century, 12 films and
> several film series for PBS. Her credits include Cadillac Desert,
> Jon Else's acclaimed series about water and the west based on the
> Pulitzer Prize-winning book; Life Beyond Earth, the PBS special on
> astronomy and the search for extraterrestrial life with author Tim
> Ferris, the WGBH series Evolution, and Carl Sagan's Cosmos.
>
> Janet Cole Executive Producer
>
> Janet Cole's recent credits, Promises, Paragraph 175, Heart of the
> Sea and Regret to Inform garnered her Oscar® and Emmy nominations,
> two Emmy awards and a Peabody Award. All had primetime broadcasts
> and extensive outreach programs. Cole has specialized in the
> strategic distribution of social-issue films for over 20 years and
> has been a consultant for PBS, CPB, the MacArthur Foundation, the
> Sundance Institute, and many filmmakers.
>
> Credits:
>
> Producer/ Director: Jamie Stobie
>
> Executive Producer: Janet Cole
>
> Editor: Ken Schneider
>
> Co-Producer: Sharon Wood
>
> Senior Associate Producer: Betsy Bayha
>
> Director of Photography: Robert Elfstrom
>
> Project Director: Richard Cox
>
> Co-Presenters:
>
> ITVS funds and presents award-winning documentaries and dramas on
> public television, innovative new media projects on the Web and
> the PBS series Independent Lens. ITVS was established by an
> historic mandate of Congress to champion independently produced
> programs that take creative risks, spark public dialogue and serve
> underserved audiences. Since its inception in 1991, ITVS programs
> have helped to revitalize the relationship between the public and
> public television. ITVS is funded by the Corporation for Public
> Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
> Contact [log in to unmask] or www.itvs.org <http://www.itvs.org/>.
> Freedom Machines was produced in association with the Independent
> Television Service.
>
> P.O.V. Now in its 17th season on PBS, P.O.V. is the first and
> longest-running series on television to feature the work of
> America's most innovative documentary storytellers. Bringing over
> 200 award-winning films to millions nationwide, and now a new
> Web-only series, P.O.V.'s Borders, P.O.V. has pioneered the art of
> presentation and outreach using independent non-fiction media to
> build new communities in conversation about today's most pressing
> social issues.
>
> P.O.V. Interactive (www.pbs.org/pov <http://www.pbs.org/pov>)
> P.O.V.'s award-winning Web department produces our Web-only
> showcase for interactive storytelling, P.O.V.'s Borders. It also
> produces a Web site for every P.O.V. presentation, extending the
> life of P.O.V. films through community-based and educational
> applications, focusing on involving viewers in activities,
> information and feedback on the issues. In addition,
> www.pbs.org/pov <http://www.pbs.org/pov> houses our unique Talking
> Back feature, filmmaker interviews and viewer resources, and
> information on the P.O.V. archives as well as myriad special sites
> for previous P.O.V. broadcasts.
>
> Major funding for P.O.V. is provided by the John D. and Catherine
> T. MacArthur Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the
> New York State Council on the Arts, the Educational Foundation of
> America, PBS and public television viewers. Funding for P.O.V.'s
> Borders (www.pbs.org/pov/borders <http://www.pbs.org/pov/borders>)
> is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Support
> for P.O.V. is provided by Starbucks Coffee Company. P.O.V. is
> presented by a consortium of public television stations including
> KCET/Los Angeles, WGBH/Boston, and WNET/New York. Cara Mertes is
> executive director of P.O.V., which is a division of American
> Documentary, Inc.
>
> Support for P.O.V. is provided by Starbucks Coffee Company.
> Starbucks has a rich tradition of supporting the arts and
> independent film and celebrates the fact that numerous points of
> view can be discussed over a good cup of coffee. Starbucks is
> committed to offering the highest quality coffee in grocery stores
> nationwide.
>
> American Documentary, Inc. (www.americandocumentary.org
> <http://www.americandocumentary.org>) American Documentary, Inc.
> (AmDoc) is a multimedia company dedicated to creating, identifying
> and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and
> perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. Through
> two divisions, P.O.V. and Active Voice, AmDoc is a catalyst for
> public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement
> activities around socially relevant content on television, on-line
> and in community settings. These activities are designed to
> trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational
> opportunities and community participation.
>
> TAPE REQUESTS: Please note that a broadcast version of this film
> is available upon request, as the film may be edited to comply
> with new FCC regulations.
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