I’ve attended the Sundance Film Festival for 15 years, now, and every year brings me a favorite moment, or two. This year, I seemed to have a zillion: I got to hang out with Paul Rudd at the premiere party for his film, The Fundamentals of Caring. 

 

 

Eddie the Eagle stars Hugh Jackman and Taron Egerton visited the Park City Nordic Ski Club jumping practice at Utah Olympic Park. I witnessed an awesome Q&A with the stars and filmmaker of Life, Animated. 

But one of the coolest moments was the least expected. I arrived at my reserved seat (thanks to the publicist for the film) at the premiere of The Fundamentals of Caring, only to be joined moments later by the author of the book on which the film was based, and then discovered that my nearest seatmates were given VIP tickets in the waitlist line. “This is the best day of my life!” one of them said. “These seats are the BOMB.” To me, that’s the essence of Sundance—folks who are fans of film who would have been thrilled with any seat, being treated like VIPs. (Later, during the Q&A, they realized the woman who had given them the tickets was a producer of the film. Class act.)

 

 

But the reason I saw these films, in particular,  was because I had a very a cool assignment, writing a guest post for Love That Max, about the way films give us a window into the world of people with special needs. Watching these films offered me a reminder of the strength and resilience that lies within all of us—it’s just a question of how we choose to use it that determines our success. It’s one of my favorite pieces, to date, and I’d love for you to read it, and let me know what you think. Oh, and if you’re so inclined, please share it.

Source: Love That Max : 5 things I learned about people with disability watching new movies