Brian Weidling, the first NCAA athlete to compete on a prosthetic leg (soccer), and Kwame Morris, the son of music icon Stevie Wonder, have teamed up to launch production company Arm and a Leg, The Hollywood Reporter has learned; Dan Kruger and Emmy award-winning sports TV director Tim Sutton are their co-founders.
Arm and a Leg is a “full-service disability-forward production company committed to championing disabled stories and storytellers, both in front of and behind the camera, in all facets of entertainment and media,” the founders told THR.
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The banner’s first project is Wildflower, the Documentary, directed by Matt Smukler, which tells the true story behind Hulu feature film Wildflower (eOne) starring Alexandra Daddario, Kiernan Shipka, Jean Smart, Brad Garrett, Jacki Weaver, Charlie Plummer and Ryan Kiera Armstrong. Smukler also directed the feature film, in which “a girl (Shipka) navigates life with two intellectually-disabled parents and an extended family that can’t quite agree on the best way to help,” per its logline.
Wildflower, the Documentary is that but for real.
“Christina appears to have it all,” the doc’s own synopsis reads. “She is an honors student, a track captain and hardworking teen. But at home, she is the primary caretaker for her mom, who has a 59 IQ, and the main support system for her dad as he navigates the weight of their family’s reality. This is her powerful true story, shedding light on the challenges of growing up too soon and the broader conversation around disability, sacrifice, and caregiving.”
Shipka’s character in the film is named Bea, but she’s essentially Christina, Smukler’s real-life niece. Wildflower (2022) debuted at TIFF.
“There is a massive underserved audience looking for content that depicts disability as a part of an everyday human experience. And for me, it’s personal,” Weidling told THR. “There are 1.3 billion people across the globe that identify as disabled. One in four Americans live with a disability. I am one of them. But there is more to my story than my disability. I’m a filmmaker, an athlete, a parent. Just like race, gender and sexuality, disability is a fundamental part of human identity. Representation should look like reality. There is no diversity without disability.”
“There are still major barriers to entry for disabled people in this industry — physical, cultural, financial, inaccessible working environments, unconscious bias in story and staffing,” Morris said. “Treating disability as part of everyday life is to acknowledge that it belongs within a varied and wide spectrum, not outside of it. We are committed to making this the standard, not the exception. We aren’t just telling stories about disabled people. We are telling stories about people and their journey. Some have disabilities.”
Wildflower, the Documentary is now available to rent or purchase on PVOD (Apple, Amazon, Google Play, Fandango at Home, Hoopla, Vubiquity/Verizon Fios, Spectrum, Charter, Cox and Xfinity); Weidling produced the doc, Kruger and Morris executive produced.
“Over 20 percent of the U.S. population are caregivers,” Kruger said in a statement. “Disability intersects with every aspect of human identity: race, gender, age and class, yet fewer than 3 percent of characters on screen have a disability. Disability on screen is often portrayed through stereotypes or inspiration narratives, with disability as the sole focus of their identity. We’re changing that.”
The Arm and a Leg slate includes includes unscripted series, short and feature documentaries and scripted projects, like an upcoming feature documentary about America’s only all-blind theater company; a docuseries titled Level Playing Field profiling elite disabled athletes who compete on able-bodied playing fields; and The ‘Special’ Special, a comedy special featuring comics with disabilities.
“We are building a new framework by modeling accessible and inclusive productions, from development of the stories we tell to production, staffing and delivery,” Sutton, whose career includes coverage of the NBC’s 2024 U.S. Paralympic Trials, said.
Arm and a Leg is represented by Olivia Zoratto at Innovative Artists. Buffalo8 represents worldwide rights to Wildflower, the Documentary.
Watch the trailer for Wildflower, the Documentary here:
