Film 'Including Samuel' to Support Iraqi Disability Rights Movement
By Matthew Gianino, Institute on Disability / UCED
August 6, 2008
Mercy Corp's Tiana Tozer, right, holds hands with Rana, who is a member of the Iraqi Alliance of Disability Organizations, during a meeting at the Al Rami Center for Autism in Baghdad. Courtesy Mercy Corps.
The award-winning documentary film “Including Samuel” is partnering
with Mercy Corps, a global relief and development agency, to support the growing
civil rights movement of the two million – nearly 1 in 13 – Iraqi
citizens who are disabled. In addition to being translated into Arabic, the
film will be incorporated into the Mercy Corps People with Disabilities Advocacy
Program, which is designed to provide education, advocacy, and outreach to
ensure that Iraqis with disabilities fully participate in society.
Photojournalist Dan Habib, filmmaker in residence at UNH’s Institute
on Disability, made the documentary to honestly chronicle his family’s
efforts to include his eight-year-old son Samuel, who has cerebral palsy, in
every facet of their lives. The film also features four other families with
varied inclusion experiences, plus interviews with dozens of teachers, young
people, parents, and disability rights experts. “Including Samuel” is
a highly personal, passionately photographed film that captures the cultural
and systemic barriers to inclusion in schools and communities. The Including
Samuel Project is based at the Institute on Disability at UNH.
“In a country where the word ‘accessibility’ lacks definition,
resources like ‘Including Samuel’ help create an understanding
of how people with disabilities can be included in all aspects of society,” said
Tiana Tozer, Mercy Corps Iraq program manager. “The film will enhance
the Mercy Corps People with Disabilities Advocacy Program by sparking our young
advocates’ creativity and imaginations, and opening their eyes to the
possibilities of what Iraq can be for them in the future.”
There is strong societal and internal stigma that Iraqis with disabilities
face each day, Tozer says. Changing cultural attitudes that exist toward people
with disabilities is central to the Mercy Corps People with Disabilities Advocacy
Program as well as the message in the film “Including Samuel.”
Habib says that there is a universal truth about people with disabilities
around the world. “They are generally undervalued and underestimated,
whether it is my son Samuel in Concord, New Hampshire, or a young boy in Baghdad
who lost a limb to the war.”
Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty, and instability
to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds.
Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided $1.5 billion in assistance to people in
106 nations. The agency’s unified global programs reach nearly 16.4 million
people in more than 35 countries. Since 2003, Mercy Corps has been supporting
a social justice movement in Iraq that supports the independence of those who
experience a disability. Tozer's work in Iraq was featured on the NBC Nightly
News (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#25008541). For more information,
visit the Mercy Corps website at www.mercycorps.org.
Habib, the director, producer, and cinematographer of “Including Samuel,” is
the Filmmaker in Residence at the Institute on Disability / UCED. For more
information, including a film trailer, visit the Including Samuel website at
www.includingsamuel.com.
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