Directed by Cheryl Green and Cynthia Lopez | 2016 | United States | 86 minutes
Who Am I To Stop It: Three everyday people with traumatic brain injury disabilities use art to reconnect to a sense of identity, self-pride, and community and to assert their agency and autonomy. This feature-length documentary (also available as three short films) centers on the artists’ narratives, creating complex portraits that go beyond the medical aspects of brain injury that typically dominate educational media on the topic. This film contains mature themes and adult language. Available with closed captions and audio descriptions.
Why this film is a good fit for libraries: Brain injury survivors, family members, rehabilitation providers, and graduate student clinicians-in-training have applauded this film for providing an unfiltered first-person perspective of how people find their way in the community after life-altering injuries. The film never shies away from discussions of homophobia, poverty, suicide, housing instability, mental illness, dependence, and the varied, creative, and self-empowered ways people with disabilities face these challenges.
Co-directed by a person with brain injury disabilities, the film provides an intimate look into many topics that go unaddressed as people move through medical care and rehabilitation by demonstrating the complex life worlds that brain injury survivors hope others around them will honor and come to understand.
[A] clear-eyed documentary . . . Recommended." - Review on Video Librarian
Who Am I To Stop It is one of a few films that accurately portray disabled people, and this alone makes it incredibly worthwhile." - Review on the Medical Humanities (BMJ) blog