[For those of you who want to skip the full list and get right into some quality films about disability, I present 20 ESSENTIAL FILMS CONCERNING THE DISABLED EXPERIENCE]

Also, bear in mind that much of disability representation in cinema is full of problematic, ableist tropes. I've included such movies here because I find value in their wrongheadedness and because otherwise this would be a very short list.

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Inspired by Adam Davie’s essential list of Black Life on Film, I decided to put together a similar list dedicated to the Disabled experience. Since there's no point in fixing something that ain't broke, I figured I'd call it Disabled Life on Film.

Having been born with muscular dystrophy, I'm intimately aware of the fact that most films about the Disabled experience are total crap and likely made by able-bodied filmmakers and actors. However, like so many different marginalized groups have discovered over the years, even in such inauthentic drivel may linger a scene, a moment, or even a single line or shot that speaks to an authentic truth. Between every caricature and misrepresentation and use of disability as prop or conduit to an epiphany for the able-bodied lead character may lie that magic kernel that allows people like me to feel seen and heard and understood. This list is dedicated to that kernel.

Feel free to reply with suggestions of appropriate films or arguments for removal or anything else.

After starting this project, I learned that Alma had done some similar work, so didn't want them to go uncredited.