I can’t recall exactly when I first connected with Kelli McNeil-Yellen. All I know is she found me on Instagram literal years ago and told me about this movie she was making that centers the disability community representationally. That film, called DARUMA, opens this Friday. It will be showing in brick-and-mortar theaters, as well as available to rent or buy on Amazon and what once was iTunes—but now is the TV app.
On its website, DARUMA is lauded as “the first film in US cinematic history to star two authentically cast disabled leads in a narrative not about overcoming disability” and executive produced by Peter Farrelly. The film is about an unemployed paraplegic man, who learns he has a 4-year-old daughter, and his amputee friend who embark on a cross-country trip to take the girl to her grandparents. DARUMA has the support of numerous high-profile disability organizations such as the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, EasterSeals, and many more.
In a telephone interview conducted earlier this week, Yellen explained the impetus for DARUMA lies in the experiences of a family member who had a spinal cord injury. The movie’s storyline is fully fictional, but Yellen said she was struck in the early 2000s at how “all of the narratives in media depicted the idea that dying was better than living with a disability,” which she defined as heartbreaking. She thought Hollywood types—and society writ large—could do much better, especially since having a disability absolutely does not mean life is over. Moreover, Yellen noticed how inaccessible films could be to disabled people; she made it her personal mission to “make a film that was accessible and told a story where it authentically cast disabled leads, but it’s not about overcoming disability.” Yellen shopped her pitch to people, but found no takers. Everyone wanted to cast it their way, but Yellen said her “line in the sand” was she refused to negotiate the notion of authentically casting the lead actors for the project. It “sat in a drawer for years,” she said.
It wasn’t until when Yellen started dating her now-husband, director and cinematographer Alexander Yellen, that what would become DARUMA would truly begin to take shape. In an interview concurrent to his wife’s, Alex told me he read Kelli’s script and was impressed, telling her it would make a good independent film. This was in 2017, with the next year featuring what’s called in the industry as a proof-of-concept. That was “essentially the trailer” for DARUMA, with Kelli saying it was a monumental step in a 17-year journey rife with ardor and adversity.
“To make the film, we had to call in every single favor we’d ever banged in a 20-year career in the business,” Kelli said of making DARUMA. “We were given Panavision’s New Filmmakers grant, which is an incredible camera package, so the film looks incredibly cinematic. We’ve been shuffling it through distribution and getting it out into the world.”
When asked about the current state of disability representation in film and television, Alex conceded he didn’t have a relationship to disability prior to getting together with Kelli. He said his only exposure to it was watching Marlee Matlin’s character, Joey Lucas, on The West Wing. Alex further noted he “doesn’t see much” genuine disability representation in media, saying “there’s some, but not nearly enough.” He praised shows like Echo on Disney+ as making inroads in this realm, but reiterated his own experience has such been that disability has “not been something that’s been in the mainstream for most of my life.” Meeting and working with the disabled actors in DARUMA—he has directorial credit—was an “eye-opening and incredibly gratifying experience” for Alex. The actors, John W. Lawson and Tobias Forrest, are “incredibly talented” and Alex is “honored” to be part of their journey as creative people in Hollywood.
Kelli concurred with Alex, telling me she’s concerned that the progress that’s been made “gets taken away” at some point. The representational angle is so important, she told me, adding “it’s incumbent upon us to lean into this as much we can right now [and] to show the world that [DARUMA] is a beautiful film.” The disability community is chockfull of talented people, Kelli said, and earnest representation in pieces like her film “is vital.” Kelli said the overarching message of DARUMA is simple: disability is part of everyday life and disabled people are everyday people. It isn’t something to be sullied or pitied, certainly not a fate worse than death. Disability is part and parcel of the human condition for a quarter of the population. To say otherwise is dehumanizing.
Alex pushed harder on the normalcy theme. “The thing that’s almost subversive about [DARUMA] is it’s a very normal film,” he said. “This is not a story that’s reinventing any wheels. It’s a road trip movie. It’s a fun, family road trip movie. Everybody has seen movies like this before.”
Disabled people aren’t extraordinary in overcoming, Alex added.
“Everybody has to relate to family members. Everybody has to navigate emotional challenges,” he said. “If we can tell a story that everybody can connect with, then it doesn’t matter we’re telling it with two guys who have disabilities. You could have told this exact same story with two men from any background and it would have had the same effect. By telling a story anybody can relate to, we’re showing them people with disabilities have the same fundamental experiences as they do. By the end of the movie, [the audience forgets] these guys even have disabilities.”
Farrelly’s involvement with DARUMA is a big deal, what with him being an Oscar winner and producing and directing such movies as Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary. His weight carries heavily, giving Kelli and Alex’s work a certain cachet. It runs deeper than credentials or name recognition, though, as Alex told me Farrelly has “long been” a disability advocate. Farrelly’s friend suffered a spinal cord injury while they were in college, with Alex telling me Farrelly has included disabled people “in the vast majority of his films.” As to DARUMA, Alex said Farrelly was “thrilled” to sign on as executive producer and help “open some doors with studios and streamers to help get [the movie] out in the world.” It had a profound impact on both Kelli and Alex; Alex said it’s meaningful when someone of Farrelly’s caliber compliments the work they’ve been doing. Alex noted Farrelly has said he’d “be proud” to be associated with DARUMA and, as such, has consistently been a “wonderful supporter” throughout the entire process.
When asked about feedback, both Kelli and Alex said DARUMA has travelled the festival circuit until now, with Alex saying the response has “been tremendous,” particularly amongst disabled moviegoers. Audiences have praised the dimensionality of the protagonists, noting how it reflects what Alex described as the “breadth and depth of the humanity that exists within the disability community.” Able-bodied viewers, he added, have been pleasantly surprised at how good DARUMA is as a piece of art. “I think we’ve opened some eyes along the way,” Alex said of the early reception. “You never know until you put it out in front of the mass audience writ large, but if our festival experience is any indication, I think people are going to really like [the movie].”
Kelli said reviews have been “encouraging.” One in particular, by Liz Whittemore at Reel News Daily, said in part “if you aren’t welling up by the film’s ending, check your pulse,” adding “representation is vital to authentic storytelling” and “the world needs more films like DARUMA.”
As to the future, Kelli said she has other projects in mind. For DARUMA, both she and Alex hope people see the film in theaters or via streaming. The couple’s main hope is to get mainstream audiences to see there’s a market for representational content, with Kelli saying DARUMA was made “completely outside the studio system.” They want people to show up and “really show people there’s an appetite for this kind of content.”
This post was originally published on here
