"CHANGE, NOT CHARITY: THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT" Film Preview

About the event:

Join us Tues., March 18 at 6:30pm for a preview screening of CHANGE, NOT CHARITY: THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT, a new documentary film from PBS's American Experience. The film premieres Tues., March 25 at 9/8c on PBS stations nationwide.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion and audience Q+A featuring the filmmakers and interviewees from the film. A reception will follow the screening and discussion.

American Experience is proud to partner with to present this event.

About the film:

Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act tells the emotional and dramatic story of the decades-long push for equality and accessibility that culminated in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. While curb cuts, ramps at building entrances, and braille on elevator buttons seem commonplace today, they were once the subject of a pitched battle that landed on the steps of Congress. Told through the voices of key participants and witnesses, the film highlights the determined people who literally put their bodies on the line to achieve their goal and change the lives of all Americans. A story of courage and perseverance, the film brings to life one of the great civil rights movements in American history, where ordinary people made their voices heard and Congress responded. A testament to the power of coalition building and bipartisan compromise, the passage of the ADA is a shining example of democracy in action.

Panelists:

James LeBrecht (director) has over 45 years of experience as a film and theater sound designer and mixer, filmmaker, podcast host, author, and disability rights activist. He co-directed and co-produced, with Nicole Newnham, the 2021 Oscar nominated feature length documentary, Crip Camp. The film received the 2020 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for feature length documentary, the 2021 Independent Spirit award for Best Feature Documentary and a 2021 Peabody Award. Jim is a member of the Disability Futures Fellowship, an initiative of the Ford Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Chana Gazit (writer, producer) is an award-winning documentary producer/director/writer. Her work has been honored with multiple EMMY nominations and three EMMY Awards. Additionally, her work has been recognized by, among others, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Journalism Awards, the Peabody Awards, the Writer’s Guild Awards, and the Sundance Film Festival. Some of her career highlights include two acclaimed Public Television series: a four-part biography of Franklin Roosevelt and a four-part biography of Lyndon Johnson. She has produced, directed, and writte eight films for the PBS series, American Experience: Chicago '68, Surviving the Dust Bowl, Meltdown at Three Mile Island, Fatal Flood, The Pill, Test Tube Babies, The Forgotten Plague, and The Codebreaker.

and featuring special guests from the film!

The conversation will be moderated by Cameo George (Executive Producer of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE). George is an Emmy Award-winning producer, writer and journalist with more than 25 years of experience in documentary, broadcast television and digital content production. George has produced, developed and commissioned innovative programming at CNN, NBC News and ABC News. She was the senior producer of CNN’s groundbreaking series Black in America and Latino in America and executive producer of the eight-hour PBS documentary series 16 FOR '16: THE CONTENDERS, which was also broadcast on the BBC. George joined American Experience from ABC News, where she was head of development for long-form projects, responsible for creating a pipeline of docuseries and feature documentary films across Walt Disney Television platforms, including ABC News, Hulu, National Geographic and Disney+. She was recently named to The Root’s list of 2024’s 100 Most Influential Black Americans.

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Major funding for American Experience provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance, Carlisle Companies and by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Funding for Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and GBH Voices and Equity Fund. Additional funding for American Experience provided by the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, The American Experience Trust, and public television viewers. American Experience is produced for PBS by GBH Boston.

Host or Publisher AMERICAN EXPERIENCE on PBS