ECHOING OUR REFLECTIONS
On-Camera Collaborator
Dana Jones
Disability Reflections participant
She is a performer and disability advocate whose work confronts ableism and celebrates resilience. Originally from Memphis and now based in Atlanta, she is a four-time stroke survivor who brings lived experience into her storytelling.
Her work produced during Disability Reflections, MzDanaK’s World, explores relationships, abuse, and self-advocacy, highlighting her journey toward confidence and creative expression. Currently, she is finishing a book where she shares her pains and triumphs with her readers.
On-Camera Collaborator
Jerry Velez
Disability Reflections participant
He is a performer and storyteller who uses humor, music, and personal reflection to share his experiences living with Sotos Syndrome. Raised in New York City within a Dominican and Nuyorican community, he developed a deep love for hip-hop, acting, and creative expression.
His film Da Surprise Behind Tha Scenes blends personal accounts and playful puppetry elements to explore identity. He is in school learning about cybersecurity.
On-Camera Collaborator
Andrew Donohue
Disability Reflections participant
He is an advocate and community leader dedicated to challenging perceptions of disability. Born with cerebral palsy and dystonia, he has built a life centered on resilience, achievement, and service.
His film I Can Do This highlights his personal journey, family support, and determination to overcome societal barriers. Andrew is in Disability Studies and is involved in advocacy and athletics.
On-Camera Collaborator
Shayaan Aman
Disability Reflections participant
He is a young performer whose work reflects creativity and curiosity. Living with autism and ADHD, he brings a vibrant perspective to storytelling through singing, art, and performance.
His documentary My Story explores his personal journey, family life, and connection to the Foundation his parents created to support individuals with disabilities in Bangladesh. He is currently in High School, living in Queens, New York.
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Echoing Our Reflections is a 30-minute documentary emerging from Disability Reflections, an educational initiative where disabled individuals author their own stories through film. It follows a cohort with diverse racial, cultural, and geographic backgrounds, ages 14 to 55, who convened in a 2024 virtual workshop.
Using the workshop as its narrative spine, the documentary weaves together a mosaic of voices, moving between participants’ daily lives and creative processes. It centers not only the films themselves, but also the act of making them. Through observational footage, participant-created work, and a culminating public screening with live dialogue, storytelling becomes a tool for self-definition, connection, and transformation.
Participants are not subjects; they are creators shaping their own narratives. Disability is presented as complex, intersectional, and culturally embedded, with accessibility functioning as a creative force rather than an afterthought.
Rooted in the director’s journey—first introduced to disability through her autistic son, and later through her own lived experience as a disabled immigrant filmmaker, mother, and educator—the project becomes both a film and an invitation: reimagining storytelling as a path toward visibility, empathy, and collective healing.
At its core, the documentary reframes disability as a shared human condition and a source of collective insight, resilience, and creativity.
WHY NOW?
This film comes at a moment when disability is both highly visible and still deeply misunderstood.
As an experienced film and television producer, I have made a conscious decision to redirect my craft toward elevating voices that have historically been excluded from shaping their own narratives.
This is also personal. I am part of the disability community and part of a growing movement of artists and activists redefining what it means to be disabled—not as a limitation, but as a complex lived experience that carries knowledge, creativity, and power.
There is a shift happening. Disabled people are no longer waiting to be represented; we are claiming authorship. Echoing Our Reflections is part of that momentum, creating space for stories to emerge from within at a time when audiences are ready to engage with them differently.
The Trailer
DIRECTOR’S VISION
It begins from a simple but urgent reality: disability is widely lived, yet rarely understood on its own terms.
While over a quarter of adults in the United States identify as disabled, their stories remain largely absent or shaped by others—shaping how society assigns value, access, and belonging.
The project originated within an educational program developed under limited time and resources, where participants were challenged to create films in just a few sessions. What emerged was powerful, but necessarily partial.
This extended production creates the opportunity to go deeper—beyond the virtual space and into participants’ daily lives, relationships, and environments.
My intention is to shift authorship. I am interested in what becomes possible when disabled individuals are not interpreted, but supported in telling their own stories.
This work is deeply personal. My understanding of disability began through my autistic son Simón, and expanded as I recognized my own non-apparent disabilities.
That dual perspective reshaped how I understand identity—as relational, evolving, and rooted in interdependence.
Formally, the film embraces accessibility as a creative force. Ultimately, Echoing Our Reflections is an invitation to witness more fully—and to reimagine how we understand one another.
ABOUT DIRECTOR
13-time NY Emmy Award winner with over three decades of experience in international film and television, she identifies foremost as a visual storyteller.
Her Mexican identity informs a rich, bicultural artistic practice. An educator and disability activist, she was guided into the world of disability through her autistic son, Simón — now on the threshold of adulthood — leading her to embrace her own evolving disabled identity.
Her work centers on difference, using storytelling as a tool for connection, reflection, and healing.
