Africa Is a Country

Film director Shelley Barry @ NYU

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Film director Shelley Barry @ NYU

By
Sean Jacobs

An Evening with Shelley Barry

Wednesday, April 28, 2o1o

At the next disTHIS!, South African filmmaker Shelley Barry will share a mixture of old, new and works-in-progress. Shelley, a wheelchair user as a result of taxi violence in her native country in 1996, made her frst film in 2003 while on a film scholarship in the United States.

Barry now runs twospinningwheels productions in South Africa. Her company focuses on bringing stories to the screen about those who are under-represented in mainstream media.

She often shoots her own films from the vantage point of her wheelchair, bringing a different cinematic angle to the big screen.

Short Films To Be Screened

Whole – A Trinity of Being: A docu-poem in three parts exploring the spiritual and political journey of embracing the body after violence and disability.

Str/oll: A woman using a wheelchair explores the streets of Manhattan

Umbilical Cord: A meditation on legbags and leaving

New York/New Brighton (work-in-progress): A fictional short film shot between New York in the US and

New Brighton SA following the journey of two young girls with disabilities who go in search of their heroes.
Retrato/Portrait: A portrait of a trans man in a wheelchair and his memories of his mother

Where We Planted Trees: Shot entirely from a wheelchair, “Trees” tells the story of the Barry family who lost their home in apartheid South Africa and regained land after democracy.

All films are subtitled in English.

disTHIS! movies, talkback sessions and related events are open to the public. $5 suggested donation.

Space is wheelchair accessible but space is limited! Call 212.590.9493 or email: [email protected] to reserve YOUR seat.

When: Wednesday, April 28th
Time: 6:30 to 10:00 pm.  Screening starts @ 7:00 pm. Followed by a talk-back!
Where: New York University
19 University Place (below 8th St). 1st Fl theater. Room 102.

Suggested Donation: $5

The disTHIS! Film Series, a project of the Disabilities Network of NYC in association with the New York University Council for the Study of Disability, is a monthly showcase of festival quality independent and international short, documentary and feature films with disability themes audiences are unlikely to see elsewhere. disTHIS! movies are always provocative; never quite what you’d  expect. No handkerchief necessary, no heroism required. This is disability through a whole new lens. To sign up for regular email updates, please go here.

Further Reading

The cost of care

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

The memory keepers

A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.

Making films against amnesia

The director of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ reflects on imperial violence, corporate warfare, and how cinema can disrupt the official record—and help us remember differently.

From Nkrumah to neoliberalism

On the podcast, we explore: How did Ghana go from Nkrumah’s radical vision to neoliberal entrenchment? Gyekye Tanoh unpacks the forces behind its political stability, deepening inequality, and the fractures shaping its future.

The Visa farce

The South African government’s rush to clear visa applications has led to mass rejections, bureaucratic chaos, and an overloaded appeals system—leaving thousands in limbo.