Fujiyama Cotton
2025 · 95m · Documentary
Disgusted by the eugenicist and ableist Sagamihara massacre of 2016, emerging documentarian Taku Aoyagi offers a radiant film about Mirai Farm, a social welfare center he frequented as a child in Yamanashi, a city in the shadow of Mount Fuji. Through gestures, Aoyagi introduces us to the different individuals who work at Mirai, as well as their distinct talents and personalities. In the process, he constructs an exemplary documentary about life with a disability, one that does not treat those filmed as “subjects,” but rather as friends with whom to occupy their own space, alongside those who care and encourage us to see the world with kindness.
More Like This
Still Tomorrow
2017 · ★ 8.2
Yu Xiuhua was raised to hope for little from her life in the rural Chinese province of Hubei. At 19, Xiuhua’s mother encouraged her to marry a man nearly twice her age, fearful no one else would accept a wife with Xiuhua’s condition — cerebral palsy. But as her 20th anniversary approaches, Xiuhua’s poetry goes viral, and she becomes the voice of a rising feminist movement throughout China.
More info →
Living in Fear
Filmed and edited entirely in isolation, Living in Fear is an educational and inspiring documentary directed by myself, Stephanie Castelete-Tyrrell, a disabled filmmaker as I capture the fears and struggles disabled people faced before the government implemented the lockdown on the 23rd March 2020. Thousands of people with disabilities were left in the dark and had to make the call weeks before to lockdown as it was inevitable that we would die if we caught the virus. Food was impossible to access because we couldn't go out or get delivery slots, and even if we did panic buyers made it impossible to get the items we desperately needed. We were truly isolated, unable to have family and friends visit. Having carers coming in and out of the house was risky and many disabled people felt that having basic care was putting their lives at risk.
More info →