Review: Being Heumann

Hollywood disability films tend to win all the Oscars. They also tend to range from dreadful to dreadfuller, with disabled people serving as inspirational parables for someone else’s spiritual development (1988’s Rain Man) or (in more downmarket contexts) being presented as manipulative fakers who deserve hyperbolic punishment (2013’s Side Effects). Sian Heder’s Being Heumann is a deliberate and welcome riposte to that depressing tradition. Based on the memoir of self-described radical crip Judith Heumann (Ruth Madeley), the film follows disability activists as they occupy a U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare building in San Francisco. Their goal is to force Joseph A. Califano (Mark Ruffalo), secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (the precursor to the U.S.

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