Carter

After graduating high school Samuel Habib, who has serious health, communication and mobility challenges, feels 'stuck' and falling behind his peers. He wants to go to college, make new friends, date, move out of his parents' home. "But no one tells you how to be an adult," he says, "let alone an adult with a disability." Samuel is determined to avoid the statistical realities for most adults with disabilities: unemployment, isolation, or institutionalization. He decides to travel to meet some badass adults with disabilities and make a film that charts how they built full adult lives-as a roadmap for himself and others. He reaches out for mentorship from people like comedian Maysoon Zayid, who says "When non-disabled people tell our stories, we only get to have three stories: 'Help me, I'm disabled.' 'Cure me.' 'Kill me.' We have to tell our own stories." Samuel decides to film his own life perspective with two cameras mounted to his wheelchair, while his filmmaker father Dan Habib also documents key moments in his transition to adulthood. Over three years, they capture degrading ableist encounters; a transition to college and independent living; his relationship with his non-disabled brother, health crises; and other intimate, emotional, coming of age moments. During those three years, he continues to seek out wisdom through conversations with six other disabled mentors: Americans with Disabilities Act legends Judy Heumann and Bob Williams; Tony-winning wheelchair-using pioneer Ali Stroker; hip-hop artist Keith Jones,; autistic, queer activist Lydia X.Z. Brown; and Andrew Peterson, marathon runner and disability activist. This eclectic cohort empowers Samuel to negotiate an overwhelmingly ableist world and pursue the late Judy Heumann's faith in him, that "the world can be a better place, and you're going to make a difference."