Is There Anybody Out There?

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

"Is There Anybody Out There?" is a documentary about a filmmaker who inhabits and loves her unusual body searches the world for another person like her, and explores what it takes to love oneself fiercely despite the pervasiveness of ableism. The film presents an nice insight about the struggles of a woman with dwarfism and how her situation has impacted her personal life.

Throughout, the direction offers pretty good insight on the disease of dwarfism and how it impacts the filmmakers journey. There are good discussions, music and style throughout and some moments were pretty touching.

Overall, a pretty good documentary.

Rating: B.

Ella Gledining presents us here with an emotionally charged documentary that follows her search for people with a similar disability to herself. She has a rare bone disorder which essentially means that she has bones missing from her legs. Aside from some fairly tortuous surgery when she would have been young, followed by some prosthetics, she was destined to remain smaller but otherwise just as intellectually capable, vibrant and ambitious as anyone else. We follow her determination to have a family (with the sparingly featured Scott) and then her own quest to use the internet to find others with whom she can share experiences, chat and perhaps bond. Glendining is an engaging lady who seems very much from the glass half full school of philosophy. Even when clearly exhausted - mentally and physically, she retains an optimism that together with their young son River seems to help sustain her when the black clouds loom. As ever, though, with one person filmmaking, it's not always the most objective of analysis about much of the rest of the population whom she routinely defines as "ableist". Her assertions that society suffers from this flaw is fairly flawed in itself. What is society? It isn't just some sort of concrete jigsaw puzzle into which her tiny piece uncomfortably fits. It's a myriad of different people, personalities, abilities, attitudes - and not many, I suspect, are actually as hostile or indifferent to those less able as she seems to think. "The world is better with the disabled in it"? Well who would argue? What is a disability anyway? Broader society is riddled with racism, homophobia, intolerances and we all live in a sort of Venn diagram model style of overlapping circles with each allowing for the differing aspects of human nature regardless as to how or if people may choose to compartmentalise themselves. Clearly this lady hasn't had a straightforward time, but she can come across as just a little inclined to paint everyone else with the same brush. A "normal" life is an entirely subjective term and what's great to see here is that she seems focussed on ensuring that her family have exactly that - work notwithstanding - and she presents us with an interesting look at just how she intends to live life to the full. Not perfect, but worth ninety minutes.

Is There Anybody Out There? From Brighton-based director Ella Glendining is a self-professed love letter to the disabled community and anyone who has ever felt other. It is a formidable debut feature by a filmmaker who has refused to allow society's expectations or prejudices about her disability to stand in her way, instead using her tenacity to build a career in a notoriously difficult and ableist industry.

Glendining embarked upon an emotional four year journey to tell her story. Is There Anybody Out There? Follows the filmmaker's global search for someone who may have experienced life from the same vantage point she has and over the course of the film takes us on a powerful journey of moving discoveries, sad truths and poignant intimate moments whilst remaining true to her own fierce love and acceptance of herself.

Could emphasise so much in respect of how able bodied people view us disabled people. I cannot state that my disability is the same, again we are all unique and there is no norm. I had polio when I was three years of age, I do remember some fleeting moments of that time believe it or not. I was totally struck down to begin with, but within a period of time only my left leg was affected...making it shorter and little to no muscle. Eventually I wore steel calipars on my affected leg. Surgery intervention to fix foot and ankle.

I met with the bullying, name calling and not belonging as she did. Unfortunately being one of 4 and having problems at home I was sent to an "open air school" for most of my childhood.

I like the one girl thought I'd be "normal" when I was an adult.

I too had the strange weirdo men very attracted to me and with their attitude that I should be grateful, but having met and knowing that I was able to distinguish the ones who genuinely liked me for me.

One thing as you mature you find that you can love who you are and realise that being different is great.

I'm now in my 70s and have had a good life, worked all my years, have a loving hubby and although I am suffering pain more now due to over exerting my body I do not regret anything but wish I could tell my younger teenage self not to let others judge or upset me.

Please watch this programme it delves into a lot of what disability can mean. We are stronger individuals than the able bodied can ever know.