Apple Announces ‘Being Heumann’ Film For Apple TV

Ryan Christoffel reported for 9to5 Mac last week Apple has announced a new film from CODA director Sian Heder, called Being Heumann. The movie, out in “select” theaters on November 6 before steaming on Apple TV on November 13, chronicles the story of disability rights activist Judy Heumann.

Christoffel writes the movie’s plot summary reads as ”based on a true story” which follows Heumann’s “turning outrage into a revolution” when, in 1977, she and more than a hundred other disabled people protested to say “the system is broken—not us.” Gerrard Hall at Entertainment Weekly wrote a first look piece on Being Heumann; Ruth Madeley plays Heumann in the film.

Heumann died in 2023 at the age of 75.

I’m excited for Being Heumann and have added it to my Apple TV watchlist, and would love to cover it in more depth later. As Hall writes, Heumann isn’t widely known outside of the disability community—but that’s what makes Apple signing off on the movie such a big deal. Yes, CODA won the Best Picture Oscar in 2022, and it was a huge moment for disability representation in Hollywood, but the category as a whole still takes a backseat to more popular things on the service like Severance and Ted Lasso, amongst others. They are great shows—I especially love Severance—but the fact Apple historically has put so much disability-centric content on Apple TV is meaningful and mirrors their ethos on accessibility in their consumer products. Good for Hall and Entertainment Weekly to run with this story; we need more mainstream outlets to care about disability awareness like this, in the movie business and elsewhere.