Home - WE ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

Photo of Emmy award winner Toni Hickman 2021 Rising Phoenix song. She is a brain aneurysm and stroke survivor.

PHAME is a fine and performing arts academy serving adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Image of Tzu-Han Chou in front of a Large Stone Statue.

Portrait of Judy Rubin. She's smiling wearing a purple sweater. She has short white hair.

Photo of Joy Elan, an award winning author and spoken word artist from Oakland and Berkeley, CA. She uses her writing to advocate for civil rights for Blacks/people of color, women, and people with disabilities. With her poetry and novels, she speaks about social issues that affect people from locally to globally.

Close up portrait of Glenn Stewart. He's wearing an orange t-shirt.

Photo of Dr. Alette Coble-Temple is a full professor at University of San Francisco. She is an advocate for the rights of parents with disabilities. She was the 2016 Miss Wheel Chair America.

Photo of Lateef McLeod, an accomplished writer and scholar. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in Anthropology and Social Change.

At North Pole Studio in Portland Oregon. Zian and Austin.

Portrait of Ani from the chest up. Her straight dark hair blows back in the wind and she smirks with a closed-mouth smile. She has white skin, and wears gold earrings, a gold chain necklace and a lavender v neck shirt that seams down the middle.

Toni Hickman

Mattmac – Press Photo 13

Co-Sponsor United Cerebral Palsy Oregon

Co-Sponsor Community Vision

Regional Arts & Culture Council

PHAME Academy

Detroit Disability Power

DWD Divas With Disabilities

northpolestudiologo

Yah Charitable Trust

María Soledad Cisternas Reyes

Dessa Cosma

DonnaWalton

Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame

Aarti & Ashaita at Café Arpan (2022)

Lizzie Acker

LeroyMooreJr.

Tzu-Han Chou

Keith Jones

Judy Rubin, PhD, ATR-BC, HLM

Joy Elan

Ray Short III

Glenn Stewart

Kathryn Harris Tijerna

Dr. Alette Coble-Temple

Ryan Hudson-Peralta

Lateef McLeod

Teddy Dorsette III

Maya Dawn Thomas

Janice Fialka and Richard Feldman

Teressa Raiford

Rob Smith

Austin Brague

Gabrielle Guedon and Zian Chavez in Portland, Oregon

Ani Grigorian

Aisha Abioto

Ramiro Alvarez

Grandmother Amantina

racclogoround

Co-Sponsor United Cerebral Palsy Oregon

WE ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

Adults with Disabilities

Our documentary is a social justice film that challenges the notions of beauty and centers on the lived experiences of adults with disabilities.

We have disability representation from Ghana, India, Taiwan, Chile, Canada, UK and the US. We live in a world that for too long has centered on the rights and needs of non-disabled persons. Our documentary challenges the notion of beauty and centers on the lived experience of people who live with disabilities. We believe this film can make a significant contribution to the disability justice movement, help raise disability awareness and deconstruct norms embedded in cultures worldwide.

Our film explores the concept of what it means to be beautiful. In a social media driven culture, humankind faces superficial concepts of beauty daily. We are flooded with unrealistic ideals of how one should look and act. In our research we have found inequities worldwide and our interviews support these inequities. Black and Brown persons with disabilities are the most marginalized. Our underlying theme dismantles the concept of beauty and highlights strengths and innate qualities that humans encompass raising awareness. Disability can happen to anyone at any time, it is part of being human. What we can do is embrace each of our unique lived experiences with respect, acceptance and compassion.

We live in a world that for too long has centered on the rights and needs of non-disabled persons. While exploring the definition of disability, this film provides insights into systemic problems disabled individuals endure on a daily basis. These struggles are often not seen or acknowledged by the greater whole. Historically our world tends to share the stories and truths of those with the most power. The medical model sees disabled people as broken or damaged humans who need to be fixed or cured. The social model decenters power focusing on how the individual is actually disabled by the environment around them. In the social model disabled people are normal human beings who should have the same right to access all aspects of the world just as they are.

While understanding that ableism and inspiration porn are embedded in our culture, we want to share stories authentically and unapologetically. It is packed with stories and information to educate and shed light on the experience of individuals with disabilities. This will be the first film to unite a minority group that spans the globe. Persons with disabilities are the world’s largest minority, yet still today, are not seen by many.

From physical to psychological and invisible, persons with disabilities are capable, smart, interesting, talented, funny, strong, beautiful, and so much more! Disability is not a bad word.

Director: BA Short
Cinematographer: Robert Lafady
Producer: Zian Chavez

“Over the years my life and work allowed me to re-examine what I thought beauty was. In my own experience of 30 years living with chronic pain and discomfort with MS, I couldn’t imagine feeling beautiful. I imagine those who have known hardship, known suffering, have an unrelenting spirit, and have hearts of gold. I believe that shine manifests into something beautiful. Having a disability doesn’t make me less than human, in my experience my disability has taught me to be a better human.” – Zian Chavez

WATMBP LLC acknowledges we are located on the territory of the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla, and other indigenous nations, ceded under duress between 1848 and 1855. Currently, Multnomah County is home to the 9th largest urban Indigenous population. For more information and an interactive map, visit https://native-land.ca/