[Image description: The inside of a body, including a spine and other organs, appears on a laptop screen. A white person’s hand reaches toward the laptop’s keyboard. On top of the hand, a caption reads: “In learning to make a film, students are taught to show rather than tell.”]
This essay film confronts questions of accessibility through the filmmaker’s attempt to record their open-heart surgery. The film follows them, as they prepare for the surgery: watching medical imaging of their body with friends, revisiting a former lover, preparing for their mom to come to New York, documenting their family’s arrival, and ultimately being admitted to the hospital. Alongside this footage, the film’s narration considers the relationship between showing and telling; various dimensions of access; and how access is frequently considered only after the threat of liability, in the context of both filmmaking and disability. The film prioritizes access as a precondition of the film itself; audio description and open captioning are inseparable aspects of the film.
