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Piss on Pity: The Story of ADAPT

Overview
Piss on Pity explores the disability-rights movement's radical wing, a group called ADAPT, which has helped shape this country's disability-rights agenda since 1983. With unprecedented four years of access we bring you an inside look at the group that stormed Congress to pass the ADA, and again in 2017 to defeat Medicaid-killing legislation. ADAPT has fought for the human and civil rights of people with disabilities for 34 years. The struggle continues.

Who is ADAPT?
In the summer of 2017, a group of ADAPTers, mostly in wheelchairs, shut down Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Congressional office taking 43 arrests in the name of saving Medicaid.  ADAPT was hailed as heroes of healthcare, the tip of the spear, the group that splintered Congress' resolve to leave as many as 32 million people without health insurance.  But ADAPT’s story begins four decades earlier, in 1975, when eight young men and women with disabilities in Denver freed themselves from a nursing home, organized, and sparked a radical movement that spread throughout the country.  Since 1983, ADAPT has staged protests in dozens of cities – first against inaccessible transportation, then focusing on community-based supports and services – an uninterrupted streak of two national actions a year as well as countless local actions. Their controversial, disruptive approach to civil rights activism has drawn intense reaction, both disdain and praise, but, either way, ADAPT has effectively altered the perception of what it means to have a disability.  Their street actions – from blocking buses to barricading Federal buildings, from surrounding governor’s mansions to occupying lawmakers’ offices – have given them a seat at the table where they’ve testified before Congress, advised Presidents, filed lawsuits, and penned policies that have influenced major disability-related statutes and legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. See how one of the poorest and most marginalized minorities in our nation uses brute force, political savvy, humor and relentless struggle to fight powerful lobbyists and cultural bias to claim their rights.  This documentary draws on four years of filming ADAPT, historic materials, and interviews with over 60 members, to tell the story of people who will stop at nearly nothing to free their brothers and sisters from the walls of institutions and the shackles of discrimination.

Who are we?
Director/Producer Peter Grosz has worked in media production for 24 years, first as an editor and producer in the Czech Republic for several national broadcasters and independent producers. After completing a graduate degree, he worked for five years as a development director for the Illinois Protection & Advocacy system, an agency Federally mandated to advance the rights of people with disabilities.  Since then, Peter and his partner Virginia Keller have produced advocacy and educational films for dozens of clients. In addition to being a film educator, Virginia has produced community, labor, and other activist media.

What’s gone into this documentary?
For the past five years, we’ve embedded ourselves in ADAPT’s local and national actions, recorded their strategic meetings, rode with them and shared their meals.  We've interviewed over 60 members and collected photographs and footage from across the country. 

As self-funded producers, we need your help to bring us across the finish line. Behind us lies months of filming, thousands of flying miles, hotel rooms, and bus beds.  Ahead of us lies several months of editing, fees and legal expenses for third-party material, organizing costs for release and distribution.  We hope you will support us on this final leg! Join our team, become a witness to the making of this feature-length documentary.  We are seeking to raise $5,000 to underwrite our post-production and release costs.

Organizer and beneficiary

Virginia Keller
Organizer
Chicago, IL
Peter Grosz
Beneficiary

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