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2021 Film Festival

Not Going Quietly

NOT GOING QUIETLY (2021) is an unrated documentary and has a run time of 96 minutes. This film screened at Cinema Touching Disability Saturday, October 16, 2021.

Following NOT GOING QUIETLY, star Ady Barkan gave closing comments by video!

My Path to Self-Advocacy panel discussion: In conjunction with NOT GOING QUIETLY, CTD's Dennis Borel chatted with some of Austin's own fixtures in the disability advocacy community. Renee Lopez and Danny Saenz, long time advocates with ADAPT of Texas, among other organizations, talked about their introduction to self-advocacy and the decades of activism that followed.

Synopsis

Film poster for Not Going Quietly: two images of Ady: above, nuzzling son's face in close up, below, holding a cane as he walks with determination holding a rally sign, escorted by a police officer, with the Washington Monument in the background. Film title appears prominently in orange between the two images, with critical quotes, laurels, and film credits in smaller text. A rising star in progressive politics and a new father, 32-year-old Ady Barkan’s life is upended when he is diagnosed with ALS.

But after a confrontation with powerful Senator Jeff Flake on an airplane goes viral, catapulting him to national fame, Ady and a motley crew of activists ignite a once-in-a-generation political movement called “Be a Hero.”

Together, they barnstorm across the country and empower people to confront their elected officials with emotional, personal stories to demand healthcare justice, and Ady holds groundbreaking interviews with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Through his journey, Ady discovers that collective action and speaking truth to power offers hope for his family and millions of others.

Continuing today to motivate others to use the time they are given and speak truth to power, Barkan continues to fight for a more just world for his son to inherit. He was featured as one of TIME’s top 100 Most influential people of 2020 and has most recently been credited with pressuring President Biden to make the recent decision to waive the COVID-19 vaccine patent. Barkan is referred to as “The Most Powerful Activist in America” because when he speaks, people listen.