RespectAbility, a disability-led nonprofit recognized for creating systemic change in how society views and values folks with disabilities, has introduced a brand new cohort of 5 members for the group’s Bodily Manufacturing Intensive.
Since 2019, RespectAbility has been operating a wide range of Leisure Labs and extra pipeline programming for disabled leisure professionals. New this yr, RespectAbility is providing six new in-person intensive classes geared towards Fellows who’re on the lookout for extra targeted programming and profession alternatives in particular inventive areas.
RespectAbility is operating an intensive session for disabled crew members working in below-the-line positions and people wanting to realize a bigger understanding of how their function intersects with bodily manufacturing. The intensive is in partnership with Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Photos Leisure, and Panavision.
The cohort contains 5 people – 4 from Los Angeles and one from Denver. Members embrace folks with a wide range of disabilities ranging in age from the 20s by way of the 60s. The Cohort contains:
Jeff Beachnau
Nandi Bowe
Robert Burns
Ben Levin
Maggie Whittum
Whereas Beachnau and Levin are new to RespectAbility programming, Burns and Whittum are alumni of the RespectAbility Leisure Lab. As well as, Bowe is taking part within the 2024 Leisure Lab concurrently with this Intensive.
“Becoming a member of the RespectAbility cohort in 2023 has catapulted my profession trajectory in some ways,” Burns mentioned. “By means of a connection on the group, I used to be provided a job as a director’s assistant for a function documentary and have gained a mess of business expertise that, beforehand, didn’t appear accessible. Moreover, RespectAbility launched me to a neighborhood of individuals with shared passions and ambitions to attain their targets within the leisure business, who got here collectively as a unit, a household. Having been accepted into the 2024 Bodily Manufacturing intensive, I hope to proceed studying and advancing in my chosen business, and to construct on this household.”
“I discovered a lot concerning the larger business in the course of the RespectAbility Leisure Lab,” Whittum added. “I’m very excited for the bodily manufacturing intensive to study extra concerning the nuts and bolts of manufacturing on set.”
A group of business advisors have offered enter on the curriculum and reviewed every 2024 applicant, together with: Deirdre Morales (Supervising Producer on the Loop Lab), Delbert Whetter (Chief Working Officer & Head of Enterprise Affairs, Exodus Movie Group and RespectAbility Board Vice Chair), and Alexander Yellen (Director and Director of Pictures).