Scene from Spencer P. Sherwin’s ‘In Case of Fire’
Spencer P. Sherwin
In ‘Take Care,’ a woman named Jo resists hiring a caretaker but eventually forms a trusting bond with one.
Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival
‘Simple Machines’ is a documentary about an architect who has to adapt the tools of his trade after he becomes an amputee.
Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival
For the first time in its 22 years history as an Austin institution, Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival will be showing in Houston.
Most of the problems people with disabilities face come down to navigating a world the able-bodied take for granted. In writer/director Spencer P. Sherwin’s 2025 short film “In Case of Fire,” for instance, all the protagonist has to do is get downstairs and out of the door of a library. The only problem is that he’s in a wheelchair, there’s a bomb threat, and the elevators turn off during said threats.
The result is a black action/comedy based on Sherwin’s own experiences as a wheelchair user but with a little “Die Hard” twist. Lousie Ho, communications associate and lead film programmer for the festival, was amazed at the lengths Sherwin went through to make the short film something full of action and adventure.
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“The director actually came when we did it in Austin and he was sharing with us how he was doing the special effects of throwing himself downstairs and stuff like that,” said Ho. “There’s like a lot of very cool special effects that relate to the wheelchair and like learning how to like roll the wheelchair downstairs, for example.”
Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival differs from ReelAbilities, Houston’s perennial disability film festival, in several ways. It accepts only shorts, both narrative and documentary, which allows the entire festival to take place on one night as opposed to multiple days. For its Houston debut on Saturday, the screening is hosted in McNair Hall in Houston Christian’s University. Tickets are on a sliding scale starting at $5, with comped tickets available by previous request. More information, including a list of films, is at TXDisabilities.org.
Ho took over the festival in 2023 after the retirement of its founder, William Greer, who initially launched Cinema Touching Disability to highlight student works made by disabled filmmakers. It’s grown into a core part of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities (CTD) advocacy.
Founded in 1978, CTD works in Texas for promotion of disability rights and welfare. Recently, the group was able to secure a minimum wage increase for caretakers and have historically helped better the quality of life for disabled Texans in everything from transportation to communication. Telling disabled stories is part of that advocacy, and there’s no better medium than film.
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Houston’s Pat Whitten-Legé is the president of In-Home Attendant Services, which she co-founded with her late husband, Gene, in 1996. Within a year, their company was a partner with CTD, and Whitten-Legé has either attended or sent representatives to the film festival since it first launched in 2004. The representation it offers helps spread the word about what the disability community needs through storytelling.
“It speaks to the heart,” she said in a phone interview. “It increases the awareness of what it’s really like in the daily lives of individuals. What does it take to get up in the morning and get ready for work? They don’t need obstacles, right? They don’t need barriers to that.”
Whitten-Legé was instrumental to bringing Cinema Touching Disability to Houston. It’s taken years of logistic-solving and lobbying on her part, but it’s finally ready to go. Houston Christian University has everything they need, including full disability access, space to screen the three blocks of shorts, and facilities for accessibility professionals like sign-language translators and audio description experts for the blind.
The line-up in Houston is varied, In addition to “In Case of Fire,” Ho highlighted two other selections. One is “Simple Machines,” a documentary about an architect who has to adapt the tools of his trade after he becomes an amputee. Another is “Take Care,” which chronicles a woman named Jo who resists hiring a caretaker but eventually forms a trusting bond with one.
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As a non-profit, CTD has a different measure of success they are looking for in their first trip to Houston. While breaking even is always nice, the primary goal is to get the films in front of as many people as possible to spread the message of disability advocacy. This screening is a unique opportunity for them to establish a new presence in Houston.
“The most important thing for us is just getting the films out there,” said Ho. “I think that if we have enough people come out and express to us that they’re excited about it and they want us to come back, then we would definitely consider it.”