Reelabilities Film Festival: We are the Audience and Beyond Each Frame
Sun, Apr 26, 2026
2 pm
Courtesy of Reelabilities Film Festival
Tickets
This event is free. Registration is required. Capacity is limited; visitors are encouraged to register in advance
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The Susan and John Hess Family Theater is equipped with an induction loop and infrared assistive listening system. Accessible seating is available.
ASL interpretation will be provided.
Real-time captioning (CART) will be provided during this event.
Learn more about access services and programs.
Floor 3, Hess Theater
The Whitney Museum is proud to present two short films followed by a Q&A as part of the 18th Annual ReelAbilities Film Festival.
We Are the Audience
We Are the Audience centers people who stutter as they reflect on how they are seen and assert how they wish to be represented. Blending documentary intimacy with refined cinematic craft, the film offers a rare, collective portrait of dysfluent voices coming together to imagine a different future. Co-created with the stuttering community through doctoral participatory action research, and featuring an original score by a composer who stutters, the film explores identity, belonging, and the quiet power of representation.
Director: Eliza Brownlie
Runtime: 6:00
Year: 2025
Beyond Each Frame
Filmmaker Auguste and his editor Grégoire face festival rejection due to a missing audio description, prompting a race against time to make their film accessible. Enter Delphine, whose innovative approach to audio description reveals how cinema can include audiences who are blind. Together, they discover that accessibility isn't just a technical requirement but a transformative storytelling tool. Beyond Each Frame celebrates inclusion, creativity, and collaboration, demonstrating the power of audio description to reveal unseen layers of narrative, enrich the cinematic experience, and foster empathy for diverse audiences.
Director: Andres Hernandez Machado
Runtime: 18:06
Year: 2026
Accessibility
Closed captioning and audio description will be provided for both films. CART captioning and ASL interpretation will be provided for the Q&A portion.
Reelabilities is the largest festival in the world dedicated to showcasing groundbreaking films by and about people with disabilities. The week-long festival is renowned for its wide-ranging international film selection and riveting conversations, presented annually across NY, NJ and online. Full festival line-up and tickets go on sale March 26. For more information about ReelAbilities, visit: ReelAbilities.org/newyork