Happy New Year from "Right Footed"

On behalf of Jessica Cox, Patrick Chamberlain, Nick Spark and Mona Lisa Yuchengco, thanks to everyone who contributed to the success of Right Footed this year. Since its debut in June, the movie screened in almost 30 film festivals in the USA and Canada, and won eleven major awards. Those honors are nice, but what’s really been terrific is to see how Jessica’s story can truly touch the lives of viewers, inspiring people from all walks of life to say Jessica’s two favorite words: “I can”.

Some of the highlights of our year included a breathless phone call from Jessica to Nick from the Vatican film festival in Rome, to tell him the film had won the “Best Documentary” honor. Then there was a screening at AirVenture where Nick shot a photo of a hug, shared between Jessica and a little girl named Ruth Evelyn who was born with no arms. The photo ended up “going viral” and was seen by tens of millions of people via the CBS Evening News and Good Morning America. Jessica, Patrick and Nick walked “red carpets” in New York and Hollywood, and showed the film at a special screening in Washington, D.C. on behalf of Handicap International, USA. The film was also shown at NASA, in Jessica’s hometown of Tucson, Arizona and in Austin, Texas where it screened as part of a major disability film festival. In these locales and others, the film provoked cheers, tears, and more than once received a standing ovation. And we recently learned that the author of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Senator Tom Harkin (ret.), got to see Right Footed and told a crowd of disability rights advocates that “It’s a great film. You should see it!”

In 2016 we’ll do our first screening in the U.K., and we’ve already been asked to show it in additional film festivals. Which is fine BUT — our goal all along has been to share the film with many, many people in the USA and abroad and we are working hard to make it happen. In the coming year, we hope to make it possible for you to get involved, and organize a screening where you live. We’re also working to develop a curriculum so we can show the film in schools. We’re also working to get it on television. Stay tuned for all the details. Want to help with our outreach? Well, there’s still time to make a tax deductible contribution through our fiscal sponsor, the International Documentary Association at this link.

Thanks again to everyone who went out of their way to attend a screening this year. It was wonderful to meet you all, and we look forward to seeing more of you as the film makes its way out into the world.

— The Right Footed Team