Continuing the themes of equal access from CODA, director Siân Heder adapts the memoir of disability activist Judy Heumann. BEING HEUMANN is structurally, a traditional biopic, but importantly, it doesn’t rush towards its triumph, allowing the cast to relish in the joyful source material. Ruth Madeley joins the pantheon of phenomenal British actors who cross the pond effortlessly, leading the film with charisma and complexity.

Any student of social justice will know the path to equal rights is rocky, non-linear, and paved by furious people who have had enough. What began as a rally outside buildings of the Department of Health and Human Services across the United States becomes the longest sit-in in US history, as dozens of activists led by Heumann (Madeley) occupy the San Francisco office. Their demand is simple, a signature to ratify Section 504, which makes it law for federal and public spaces to be made universally accessible.

Mark Ruffalo plays US secretary Joseph Califano, the man who has the power to make this happen, and he cuts a surprisingly sympathetic figure. Is he stubborn and self-important? Sure, any viewer will want to throttle him. But nobody in politics wants to be the guy who signs a three billion dollar cheque. However, risking his job and his reputation is outweighed by the needs of constituents. It’s a win to hold an official to account, and actually fulfil promises that would have remained empty, forcing the hand of a disgruntled suit to put his constituents first.

“Although the film has something of a glossy, poppy 70s aesthetic about it […] this vibe doesn’t detract from the rage of these characters.”

BEING HEUMANN may put Judy front and centre, but a movement is more than one person. Even among two characters, her collaborator Kitty Cone (Madeline Delp) provides a soft-spoken, middle class, pearl-wearing vibe to contrast with Judy’s brash Brooklyn energy ordering everyone around. As you expand the orbit around these characters, this protest is a story about the beauty of intersectional collaboration. Brad Lomax (Antwan Tolliver), a wheelchair user with multiple sclerosis rallies the Black Panthers to bring in supplies and food, while this is the acting debut of Charlie Rush-Reese, as Dennis Billups, a young blind Black man. When the phone lines are cut, the Deaf activists and their interpreters send messages through the window. With one of Judy’s ride-or-die allies Joni Breves (Robert Colindrez) delivering the iconic line “what, you never seen a lesbian Italian before?” the film shows this incredibly varied vibrant community without homogenising their opinions. In heated arguments and beautiful testimonials (in an open hearing to HEW officials), each character has the space on screen and in the script to voice their individual concerns.

Although the film has something of a glossy, poppy 70s aesthetic about it (something that checks out for an Apple film made for streaming), this vibe doesn’t detract from the rage of these characters. The fashion and the camerawork may be slick, but the protest isn’t glamorised, and the film doesn’t romanticise the hardships or undermine how difficult this undertaking was. Bathroom walls have to be broken down, so attendants can carry wheelchair users to use the toilets, and several protestors, including Judy, start hunger striking.

“These characters are loud and sexy and funny, they smoke, they fool around, and they sing…”

However, as wholesome as the message is, with affecting scenes where the activists sing songs of freedom like We Shall Overcome, it is important to note BEING HEUMANN is still R-rated in the USA. These characters are loud and sexy and funny, they smoke, they fool around, and they sing: this is the dancing revolution of which anarchist Emma Goldman talked. And there is a lot to laugh at, from the advice to Judy to “show your cleavage and cry” on camera, to the fact that the police can’t even arrest the protestors because the prisoner vans and jails aren’t accessible. Dylan O’Brien plays a rookie news anchor who finds himself swept up in a movement, and it is refreshing to have the straight white able-bodied man play the fish-out-of-water.

This is exactly the kind of project you’d want Siân Heder to invest in after her Oscar win; she learned about Heumann from the documentary CRIP CAMP and worked with her on this project until Judy’s death in 2023. Like the Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners movement depicted in PRIDE, this is history everyone should know about, and it is done justice by such a talented cast and crew.