Dear Dr. Shriver,
We are producing an independent documentary film All You Hear Is Noise which focuses on the topic of intellectual disability rights and inclusion through the narrative lens of a team of athletes from the U.S. who traveled halfway around the world to compete in the Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi.
Our ultimate goal is to bring the underrepresented experience of people with intellectual disabilities into mainstream media and entertainment to facilitate awareness of, and subvert, structures of ableism that still permeate our society.
In 2020, we pitched the film to the major commercial platforms in partnership with a production company backed by a high profile professional athlete. We are currently in the process of undertaking a targeted re-edit to address feedback we received from those pitches - and are simultaneously looking to broaden awareness and stakeholder support for the film.
If the film aligns with your goals, we’d invite the opportunity to discuss our plans with you in more detail to determine if there’s a way we could be working more closely together to ensure this story reaches a wide audience.
The background materials below are set up for self exploration, but we’re available to walk through them via phone/zoom if you'd prefer.
Thank you,
Ned Castle and Matt Day, Co-Directors
The Story.
All You Hear is Noise weaves together an intimate tale of personal and athletic pursuit against the backdrop of the disability civil rights movement.
Watch a short trailer a.k.a. “sizzle reel” that introduces the story, style, and tone of the documentary—mixing verite and historical footage to weave together the personal and societal journey.
Closed Captioning can be turned on by clicking the CC logo in the player options bar.
The Background.
Principal photography for the film was undertaken between January – December 2019, and a ‘fine cut’ of the film was submitted to 2020 film festivals and pitched to the major commercial distribution platforms (i.e. Netflix, Apple+, HBO, Amazon, etc). The existing cut of the film was accepted to a prominent regional festival—and received serious consideration from several commercial platforms—but in the end, was not purchased, and the production team made the decision to withhold release, address consistent feedback, and re-pitch the revised film in 2021.
The existing cut of the film focuses on the personal/athletic journey of three Special Olympic Athletes—whereas the augmented storyline will draw in historical and societal perspectives on the Special Olympics movement and broader fight for intellectual disability civil rights. The revisions will broaden the scope of the film, and drive deeper investment into the characters of the film, the significance of their journey, and to challenge the audiences existing views on ableism.
A message from Kate Bove.
Kate Bove has been an advisor on the film since the beginning. She is an advocate and she has competed in two World Games competitions. We met with Kate in the early stages of the film-making process to discuss the idea of making a documentary about the Special Olympics World Games. In this clip Kate is responding to a question about the potential impact of the documentary.
Closed Captioning can be turned on by clicking the CC logo in the player options bar.
The Treatment.
The treatment provides a more in-depth look at the film’s storyline, subjects, and act structure. It is available for viewing in a slideshow format below- or by downloading a PDF version here.
Need, Impact, Distribution.
Need. There is a general consensus that individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) face structural barriers to employment, healthcare, and housing and suffer the emotional repercussions of stigma and misperceptions. These cultural narratives are perpetuated by underrepresentation and inaccurate portrayals of ID in the media. A USC study found that, in 2016, only 2.7 percent of all speaking or named characters in film were shown to have a disability.
Impact. Recently, the Ford Foundation report, A Roadmap for Inclusion: Changing the Face of Disability in Media, explored the issue of inadequate media representation of the one-in-four Americans who live with disabilities. All You Hear Is Noise makes strides toward the report’s “Ideal World” scenario of “full inclusion” in media, via (1) more on-screen representation; (2) people with disabilities comprising about 25 percent of the characters in media; and (3) stories that are not centered solely on their disabilities and do not perpetuate harmful stereotypes.
Distribution. Distribution to the education market alone would bring an invaluable teaching tool, along with curriculum supports, into classrooms across the county, and the world. Additionally, if the film is successful on commercial streaming platforms, the potential rippling impact on the worldview of a general audience is exciting to imagine.
Funded Activities
The revisions to the storyline will be accomplished primarily through the incorporation of archival materials—along with some additional interviews with the film’s subjects and others. Remaining funds are being raised through a mix of grant opportunities, individual contributions, and Executive Producer credits.
Fundraising ($125K)
Building an Advisory Group comprised largely of people with intellectual disability.
Archival footage research and acquisition- and additional filming and interviews with the film’s subject and others.
Film “finishing costs” including coloring, audio mastering, and original score.
Submission of revised film to distribution platforms, festivals, and educational marketplace.
Secured ($80K)
All hard costs of the production to date have been largely self-financed by the Directors.
Nothing about us, without us.
‘Nothing about us, without us’ is the rally cry of the disability rights and self advocacy movements, and in that spirit, we have to date empowered our subjects in the creative process and built collaborative partnerships with organizational stakeholders and advocates—e.g. Special Olympics, Respectability.org.
As we move into this next phase, addressing more complex societal issues, our Advisory Group of 10-12 consultants will be an invaluable resource for helping us navigate these storylines.