Transform!

Transform is a genuine expansion of the way disability is represented on film. Filmmaker Ishida Tomoya is a young disabled man and a wheelchair user who documents his own adventures with choreographer Osamu Jareo. Osamu runs a dance theatre which encourages people with different disabilities to explore their own range of movement and expression. Ishida then turns the camera on some of his classmates to discuss their experiences and the challenges facing them in society. As he puts it, ‘My only handicap could be no experience in filmmaking’, but he even turns that to his advantage.

‘One of the best assets of the movie is actually hearing Ishida and [the camerawoman] speak, being quite eloquent, and exhibiting a rather intense level of thinking, both about themselves and the way the people interact and react around them. As Ishida says, “My only handicap could be no experience in making a film, making it difficult for me to handle the equipment, I didn’t have any difficulty in communicating, and I didn’t have any disadvantage in directing the film”, with this phrase actually synopsizing the essence of the documentary, which focuses on what people with disabilities can actually do, and not their limitations.’

Panos Kotzathanasis, asianmoviepulse.com