Oscar-winning CODA filmmaker Sian Heder’s upcoming feature Being Heumann will open the Toronto Film Festival, it was announced Tuesday.
TIFF’s 51st edition is also giving world premieres at Roy Thomson Hall to Prima Facie from British director Susanna White and The Assassin(s) from Korean auteur Hur Jin-ho. After the Hollywood studios shunned Cannes with big ticket titles, Apple Studios is bringing Heder’s adaptation of disability rights activist Judy Heumann’s best-selling memoir of the same name, with Ruth Madeley in the titular role as Judy Heumann.
Being Heumann focuses on Heumann (Madeley) as she leads around a hundred disabled people in a 28-day sit-in at the San Francisco Federal Building in 1977. The protestors vow to stay put until the government enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, requiring accessibility for all federal spaces.
“Being Heumann features an electric performance from Ruth Madeley in the story of Judy Heumann, a world-changing advocate for accessibility,” Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF, said in a statement about his first night movie pick. Mark Ruffalo also stars in Being Heumann. Heder and Rebekah Taussig co-wrote the script for the movie, which Heder produces through her overall deal with Apple Studios.
