“People are right that there’s a buzz and energy that comes from being on set. I love slipping on a headset. With a click and hum, I've tapped into the scene and the hive of creatives working behind the camera. It’s especially empowering when in the real world you have a choir voice like mine, so quiet it blends into the crowd. But with the headset, I can zoom through the soundstage in search of the right prop while talking to the crew manning the teleprompter.
When all you want to do is focus on the story building from a single interview, being in the room doesn’t feel important. All I want is for the world around me to quiet and lock into what they have to say. And as much as I know it’s important to take up space as a Disabled producer with a purple power chair, it's not on the top of my mind. There's a different kind of synergy with working from the comfort of my computer screen. No need to double-check if there is a universal bathroom. Or if the elevators along the route are working. Or asking someone to help me fix my mask from slipping. There's just the world you are trying to build in frame.
The truth is, as much as I love being on set, as long as I have the feed from the monitor and can talk to the director, I am in true creative bliss.”
This National AccessAbility Week, the DSO is happy to launch a new series: “DSO Spotlight”. Each month, you’ll meet a different disabled creative who is helping shape a more inclusive screen industry.
Our first feature, Michelle Asgarali (@watchthosetoes), is a Toronto-based writer/producer specializing in disability narratives. With a background in character-driven docs, she has transitioned to scripted, recently earning a CSA nomination for Best Sketch Comedy Series for "The Squeaky Wheel: Canada," which features over 50 disabled creatives (available at ami.ca/TSWC).
She is also co-lead of the Disabled Producers Lab, an initiative the DSO is proud to support in partnership with Women in View and the National Screen Institute.
Learn more.
DSO Spotlight is our way of celebrating the contributions of disabled creatives across the screen industry and making space for their work to be seen and valued. Share this article to help us amplify Michelle’s work!
