Overview
- Being Heumann opened in select U.S. theaters on November 6 and will begin streaming on Apple TV on November 13, following its TIFF opening-night premiere in September.
- Ruth Madeley, who has spina bifida, stars as Judy Heumann and worked with director Siân Heder on accent, ASL, movement and period wheelchair use to recreate 1970s lived experience.
- Reviewers praised Madeley’s central performance and the film’s attention to overlapping access barriers while some critics said the screenplay compresses extended organizing into familiar biopic beats.
- Regal Cinemas partnered with Apple Original Films to offer open-caption showings priced at $5.04 from November 9 to 11 at more than 100 locations to mark Section 504.
- The movie retells the 1977 San Francisco sit-in that pushed for federal enforcement of Section 504, and its release could raise mainstream awareness of disability rights and influence how studios and theaters prioritize authentic casting and access measures.