PEOPLE IN MOTION: WAYS TO MOVE

Among the greatest obstacles facing people with physical disabilities are society's attitudes. Through three stories that shatter stereotypes, WAYS TO MOVE explores the debate between those who see disability as an affliction to be cured and those to whom the challenge is to make society accessible. The program opens with a montage of enchanting and engaging dance presentations which use wheelchairs as the center of performance. Dancers from two dance troops Axis and Light Motion perform and talk about choreography with wheelchairs as the center of performance. The second story highlights the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a unique collaboration between scientists, doctors and clinical researchers who believe they will eventually be able to reverse spinal cord injury. The concluding story features Ed Tessier, a 27 year old candidate for Congress in Pomona, California who just happens to be a quadriplegic.

The individuals in each of these stories have been newly empowered by a combination of technological breakthroughs and important changes in society's attitude towards people with physical disabilities.

PEOPLE IN MOTION was produced by WNET and broadcast in 1995. Itzhak Perlman was the host.

Credits

Executive Producer: Bill Einreinhofer
Director, Producer and Writer: Lyn Goldfarb
Researcher Director: Anatoli Ilyashov
Director of Photography: Sandra Chandler
Editor: Meri Weingarten
Composer: Michael Whalen
Host: Itzhak Perlman

Reviews

...three episodes are moving, fascinating, often inspiring…the gutsy people with disabilities in this series are not normal. They're way above. So is the series.
Sandy Rovner, The Washington Post, 1995

...a new, slickly produced, highly personalized and thoroughly captivating series takes a wide-ranging look at the current state of disability in this country...People in Motion is rewarding, informative television for all viewers.
Daily News, 1995

Although People in Motion is mostly about people in wheelchairs, it is not victim television. This three-hour PBS series calls not so much for sympathy...as for an appreciation of how some severely disabled men and women are challenging their fates...the wheelchair dancing, artfully photographed, becomes not a set of tricks but moments of beauty.
The New York Times, 1995

Back to Filmography

Watch excerpts:
Real Media Low | High
Quicktime Low | High

Copyright 2008 Lyn Goldfarb Productions, Inc.