Heder Returns to TIFF with 'Being Heumann' — SkimNews
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- "Being Heumann" premiered at TIFF as director Siân Heder's first film since "CODA" (2021), starring Ruth Madeley as disability-rights leader Judy Heumann with a cast composed entirely of disabled actors.
- Ruth Madeley's Judy Heumann organizes the 28-day sit-in at San Francisco's Federal Building — the longest in U.S. history — pressuring HEW Secretary Joseph Califano to sign Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act into effect.
- Mark Ruffalo plays Califano, a Carter-era HEW Secretary who resists signing, citing a $2.4 billion (1977 dollars) compliance cost — which the review frames as a liberal unwilling to spend on "those people."
- The film spans from Heumann's 1972 New York protest, in which she wheeled into Madison Avenue and stopped a Mack truck, through the 504 sit-in aided by Black Panther Brad Lomax (Antwan Tolliver) and his comrades, who brought food to sustain protesters on a hunger strike.
- Heumann was denied entry to school until age 10 because she was considered a "fire hazard," and her movement's ultimate legislative victory — the Americans with Disabilities Act — wouldn't be signed until 1990, 13 years after the sit-in.
- Heder structures the film to first invite viewers to define each character by their disability before subverting that framing, a technique the review credits with "burn[ing] away any hint of sentimental complacency."
Why it matters: By casting disabled actors as disabled characters and initially letting audiences define people by disability before pulling that rug, Heder doubles down on the boundary-pushing casting that earned "CODA" Best Picture. Variety's companion TIFF coverage flags the film as Apple's next Oscar contender, positioning a politically charged crowd-pleaser with built-in awards-season narrative as a major play.
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