“Hale” is a new short documentary film about Hale Zukas, who helped make Berkeley the birthplace of the disability rights movement. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child. He went on to study Russian and math at UC Berkeley in the 1970s and he helped found Berkeley’s groundbreaking Center for Independent Living, which has become a nationwide model.
Filmmaker Brad Bailey made the documentary as his thesis project at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. He just picked up a Student Academy Award for the project, joining some big names like Spike Lee and Robert Zemeckis. He spoke with Sasha Khokha, host of The California Report Magazine. What follows are some excerpts from their radio interview.
On choosing to tell the story of Hale Zukas:
I was heading to school to return some equipment one day, and I saw this interesting man in a wheelchair the courtyard of the journalism school. When I saw him, I could tell that he had overcome a lot of obstacles, despite whatever perceived limitations people may think he has. There was something very witty and very intelligent about him. He’s got a wicked sense of humor, that came out immediately. And then I found out later that he was one of the country’s premiere disability rights activists.
How disability touched Bailey’s own life, and influenced his decision to make the film:
When I was 15, my dad had an accident. He got hit by a Mac truck driving down the expressway. That changed my childhood forever. When that happened, disability affected me and my family firsthand. Disability touches everybody. Nobody is immune from that. No matter your race, your gender, your sexuality, disability is universal. It affects everyone. Hale’s work affected everything from ramp to curb cuts, to the way we build buildings today.