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Synopsis

Cast

• Narrator: Peter Dinklage | bio

  “Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it? Do you know anyone who’s had a dream with a dwarf in it? No! I don’t even have dreams with dwarves in them. The only place I’ve seen dwarves in dreams is in stupid movies like this!”

  With his supporting role in Tom Decillo’s “Living In Oblivion”, actor Peter Dinklage - as dwarf actor ‘Tito’ – delivered an open rant to an entire generation of would-be filmmakers, refusing to be used as a gag or a prop – while honoring his craft with an unforgettable fierceness and dignity. Now, Dinklage has redefined the concept of a leading man with his starring role in the 2003 Sundance Audience Award winner “The Station Agent”, for which he was recognized with a “Best Actor” nomination in the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards, as well as being named one of the top 5 “Breakout Stars” of the year by Entertainment Weekly. Recently, Dinklage was prominently featured in People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” issue. He is also starred in a 2004 production of “Richard III” at the Public Theater in New York and a Lincoln Center production on the life of painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec for director Martha Clark.

• Cast Member: Bonita Dearmond | bio

  "I wanted to learn computer skills. I thought that with all this technology surely there was something out there a visually impaired person could use." —Bonita Dearmond. A single mother of two in rural Tennessee, Bonita’s spare, poignant narrative frames a time when institutionalization of people with disabilities was the custom: “Twenty-five, thirty years ago when I was in the School for the Blind, the expectations were… you open a vending stand which is like selling, you know, cokes, candy bars, a concession stand type thing. That’s what rehab had going. But I wanted more than that. In 1974 they passed a law that said the public schools had to provide an equal education setting. That was the ultimate achievement in my life — to come back to the community and to say, I can do it.” Despite a college degree in special education and advanced training in specialized technology, Bonita remains among the 70% of working aged adults with disabilities who are unemployed.

• Cast Member: LaToya Nesmith | bio

  “I would like to do something with language, like translating songs into all different languages. I want to come up with a Polish opera. They have Italian opera, and French opera. I want to see if I could pull off a Dutch or Polish or something other than romance languages because the Slovak languages are nice too.” —Latoya Nesmith, Student. Seventeen-year-old Latoya Nesmith is determined to get the best possible mainstream education, but it hasn’t been easy. Her high school experience began in Albany, NY where she reports, “a lot of times technology would be an issue.” Latoya is striving to use the advanced computer applications she now needs in her new public school. She wants her education to support her aspirations.
  Latoya’s mother, Felicia Smalls, voices the frustrations of many parents who are often alone in trying to get the local school systems to provide necessary technology to their kids. “What happens is that every time it comes to ordering high tech equipment they ask for another evaluation…I called the board of education, the state board and they have to connect with the school and then we have to go to an appeal and go to a hearing but this has been going on for the last four years…doesn’t matter what district…”

• Cast Member: Gladys Wang | bio

  “I don't consider myself disabled to the level that I'm not able to do anything. I have this handicap, that's the way I feel. It's a handicap and I'm still hoping I can improve it as time goes on.” —Gladys Wang. At 93, Gladys Wang’s profound hearing loss may not be unusual for her age. But for her, it is unacceptable and has inspired her to look for anything that might help. “If I could have better hearing and improve my vision I could also do some volunteer work. I’m still able to get around to do some of that you know.” Her attitude typifies the feelings of other seniors. Over 40% of Americans 65 years and older have a disability. As the American population ages the number of citizens with disabilities will swell from 54 million to 70+ million in the next generation. “I don’t consider myself disabled to the fact that I’m not able to do anything…I have this handicap… that’s the way I feel…it’s a handicap and I’m still hoping that I can improve it as time goes on.”

• Cast Member: Floyd Stewart | bio

  “People should not be warehoused in a facility like cattle. But due to the lack of programs that provide assistive technology and attendant care, you have no choice.” —Floyd Stewart, Disability rights advocate and counselor. A disability rights advocate and counselor in Nashville, Stewart freed himself from a de facto life sentence in a nursing home after a car accident in his mid-30s which resulted in quadraplegia. He now helps others follow the trail he blazed. We enter the huge, 600-bed state facility where Stewart was once confined. He is returning to visit James Boyd, a young man with a recent spinal cord injury, to urge him to take advantage of his technical background and a new generation of accessible tools to get a degree, and eventually gain his independence. "Why pay $65,000 a year to keep someone in a nursing home when $25,000 would allow them to live independently?”

• Cast Member: Shoshana Brand | bio

  “I'm ready to rent out video's that are described. Like videos, except in the quiet places in the movies it describes the scenery, costumes, facial expressions. I describes for the visually impaired person everything that other people can see.” —Shoshana Brand, Founder and Owner of Blue Rose Videos With A Voice. Jackie Brand’s life course was changed when she saw the potential for newly emerging technologies to help her daughter, Shoshana become part of the world. Her vision and partnership with engineers, people with disabilities and parents, brought about a grassroots organization — the Alliance for Technology Access—dedicated to providing training and access to technology for people with disabilities. “When Shoshana was starting school …there was no requirement that assistive technology be considered as a part of her education plan. Now there is a law in place so that children in schools have the right, and teachers have the responsibility to look at the range of technologies and how it would enhance and enable a student to benefit from a public school education.”

• Cast Member: Susanna Sweeney-Martini | bio

  “Without technology, I couldn’t survive.” —Susanna Sweeney-Martini, University of Washington student. “Where is the money and why isn’t it used here?" —Sue Sweeney, Mother, Special Education Teacher. Freedom Machines begins with Susanna at a pivotal moment in her life:her first day of college. “I’m not like other kids — other ‘normal’ kids,” she says, acknowledging the critical role technology plays in her life and in her plans for the future. Referring to her voice input program on her computer she says, “It’s probably the best thing they ever came up with for me—well aside from a wheelchair.”
  Her mother, Sue Sweeney, is a special education teacher who has struggled for 18 years to get Susanna the technology she needs. “Where is the money and why isn’t it used here? Because they don’t think these people will be out voting. They don’t consider that Susanna is going to make a difference but they’re really in for a big surprise.”

• Cast Member: Melanie Sarmiento | bio

  "Right now we're in kind of an awkward stage because technology is so rigid and fixed And that's exactly what we're trying to do-is make it more flexible so that technology adapts to us.” —Rich Kjeldsen,Inventor. An unlikely creative pair: 9-year old Melanie Sarmiento, who can neither speak nor use her hands, is helping engineer Rick Kjeldsen create a non-touch switch that will eliminate the need for a keyboard. Soon this camera-based switch will be available to the general public, many of whom will have their own specialized needs. Kjeldsen introduces the concept of universal design — the ground-breaking idea that technologies should be created with built-in flexibility to adapt to the differing needs of all users.

Crew

• Director: Jamie Stobie | bio

  Director/ Producer JAMIE STOBIE'S career in documentary films spans nearly thirty years. She is co-producer of What about God?, the last hour of the WGBH series, “EVOLUTION” which aired on PBS on 2001. She produced “Life Beyond Earth”, a two-hour film special on the history of space exploration and the scientific search for extra-terrestrial life with author Tim Ferris, broadcast on PBS in 1999. She was executive producer for “They Drew Fire”, a one-hour documentary about the soldier artists of World War II, narrated by Jason Robards.

  Jamie has been line producer, production manager and associate producer for numerous documentaries including Jon Else’s acclaimed series based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Cadillac Desert”, about the history of water in the American West; “Livelyhood”, The Working Group’s series about the changing American work place; “American Crime and Punishment”, Bill Jersey’s documentary special on criminal justice; and “We the People”, KQED/San Francisco’s four-part series on the Constitution hosted by Peter Jennings. She began her film career in 1977 on the staff of “Cosmos”, the Pulitzer Prize winning documentary film series about astronomy with Dr. Carl Sagan.

• Executive Producer: Janet Cole | bio

  JANET COLE was the Producer and Executive Producer of “Regret to Inform”, for which she received Academy Award and Emmy nominations and a 2000 Peabody Award. She also produced the Emmy–nominated “Paragraph 175” with directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman for HBO; and “Absolutely Positive” with director, Peter Adair for the BBC and PBS, winner of the IDA’s Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award. Her executive producer credits also include “Heart of the Sea” (PBS, Independent Lens 2003), “Promises” (PBS /POV 2000; winner of two Emmy Awards; Academy Award nominee) and “FREEDOM MACHINES”, which had its PBS broadcast on POV in 2004. Throughout the 1980s, she designed distribution campaigns for independent films and worked with such classics as “Word is Out”, “The Life & Times of Rosie the Riveter”, “The War at Home”, “Gal Young ‘Un”, and “Soldier Girls”. In the mid-1990s, she conceived and supervised production of a 4-hour series called “Positive: Life with HIV” for the Independent Television Service (ITVS). As a consultant, she works frequently with independent producers and organizations. Her clients have included ITVS, PBS, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Sundance Institute, and the American Film Institute. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

• Picture Editor: Ken Schneider | bio

  Ken Schneider, has edited social issue documentaries for 12 years. His films include “Regret To Inform”, winner of a Peabody Award and nominee for both an Academy Award and an Emmy; “Ralph Ellison: An American Journey for American Masters”; the Columbia- Dupont winning “School Colors” for Frontline; “The Good War and Those Who Refused To Fight It”; “Store Wars: When Wal- mart Comes To Town”, and “Making Peace: Healing the Community”, all broadcast on PBS.

• Director of Photography: Robert Elfstrom | bio

  Robert Elfstrom, has shot numerous award-winning PBS and NOVA documentaries. Recent credits include “Cathedrals of the Sky” for Discovery Channel, “Paul Rodriguez Behind Bars”, and “Extreme: Sports to Die For” for HBO, “The Lost Children of Rockdale County” and “Blackout” for Frontline, and a two-part PBS series, “Life Beyond Earth”.

• Composer: Todd Boekelheide | bio

  Todd Boekelheide started working in film in 1974 as a member of the staff at American Zoetrope, Francis Ford Coppola’s production company in San Francisco. In 1976 he left to work as an assistant editor on “Star Wars”, and went on to edit picture and sound on “The Black Stallion” two years later. This film kindled an interest in film music, so he began music studies at Mills College in Oakland. As he began to develop his film scoring career, he also specialized as a rerecording mixer, and won an Oscar for mixing the music on “Amadeus” in 1984. He has scored several feature films, including “Dim Sum” and “Nina Takes a Lover”, and numerous documentaries, notably “Hearts of Darkness:A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse”. In 1999 he won an Emmy for his score for the documentary “Kids of Survival:The Life and Art of Tim Rollins” and the KOS. Up-to- date credits information can be found at www.tobomusic.com.

• Composer: Evelyn Glennie | bio

  Evelyn Glennie Born on a farm in Aberdeen, Scotland, Evelyn studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and grew up to become the first full time solo percussionist in the world. Winner of two Grammy Awards, she has performed in forty-two countries with the world’s most renowned orchestras, and recorded some eighteen albums/CDs. Her groundbreaking repertoire ranges from the classics to dozens of pieces she has personally commissioned. She travels with approximately two tons of equipment including some of the 1800 percussion instruments in her personal collection. Her latest CDs include recordings with the BBC Symphony, the Singapore Symphony and the North Texas Wind Symphony. Find out more about her at: http://www.evelyn.co.uk

• Associate Producer: Betsy Bayha | bio

  Betsy Bayha currently works in the documentary department at Lucasfilm Ltd. in San Rafael, CA. She has worked in public broadcasting for more than fifteen years and was Associate Producer on “Nightshift” and “The Workday that Wouldn’t Die” for the PBS series, Livelyhood, about the changing workplace. She was a principal scriptwriter on the Discovery Channel series, “Serendipity” about serendipitous medical discoveries and was an on-air reporter at National Public Radio affiliate KQED for almost a decade. As a person with a disability, Betsy has a strong interest in stories about disability issues.

• Copyright: Richard Cox Productions
• Production Company: Richard Cox Productions | bio

  Richard Cox originated the “Freedom Machines” film concept. A computer consultant who has produced traditional and computer animation shorts, he became involved with assistive technology over eighteen years ago when exploring how personal computers can be adapted to help children with disabilities. He is continuing to apply his interests in film, animation and computer graphics toward helping individuals research and adapt technology systems to their personal needs.

• Producer: Jamie Stobie | bio

  JAMIE STOBIE'S career in documentary films spans nearly thirty years. She is co-producer of What about God?, the last hour of the WGBH series, “EVOLUTION” which aired on PBS on 2001. She produced “Life Beyond Earth”, a two-hour film special on the history of space exploration and the scientific search for extra-terrestrial life with author Tim Ferris, broadcast on PBS in 1999. She was executive producer for “They Drew Fire”, a one-hour documentary about the soldier artists of World War II, narrated by Jason Robards.

  Jamie has been line producer, production manager and associate producer for numerous documentaries including Jon Else’s acclaimed series based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Cadillac Desert”, about the history of water in the American West; “Livelyhood”, The Working Group’s series about the changing American work place; “American Crime and Punishment”, Bill Jersey’s documentary special on criminal justice; and “We the People”, KQED/San Francisco’s four-part series on the Constitution hosted by Peter Jennings. She began her film career in 1977 on the staff of “Cosmos”, the Pulitzer Prize winning documentary film series about astronomy with Dr. Carl Sagan.

• Associate Producer: Sharon Wood | bio

  Sharon Wood received a Northern California Emmy for “And Then One Night: The Making of Dead Man Walking”. Her credits also include “KPFA On The Air”, which aired on PBS, “Paragraph 175” for HBO, Isamu Noguchi for PBS’s American Masters, and three Oscar nominated films during a two decade career.

Accolades