In a key moment from the film, when reporter Evan White (Dylan O’Brien) shares his intention to cover the sit-in protest by Judy and her compatriots to urge the lawmakers to speed up signing of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 1973, Judy in turn asks him if he is doing this to inspire people to do something about this or to just be inspired. Being Heumann separates itself from other films that include characters with disabilities by treating its subjects as humans rather than mascots. The protestors are not only people who use wheelchairs, but they also include people with blindness, people who are hard of hearing, and more. The lack of public access to include them not only deprives them of the right to access, but also deprives them of the ability to protest, which leads to multiple infighting, and more hilariously, the inability of the police to arrest them, because even police vans and jails are not inclusive. While showcasing all of this in the film, Heder does not pity them or elevate them; instead, she wants you to see them as human, which she achieves.
With Being HeumannHeder also takes on the momentous task of telling not only the story of one woman’s fight, but the story of an umbrella movement stretched across several years. In this tightly knit two-hour film, Heder deftly weaves every single story, which doesn’t waver from its core ideal. The sit-in protest with Judy at the centre, not only has to talk about discrimination against people with disabilities, but also racial prejudice, homophobia, and a lot more. But no cause is diminutive, and Heder maintains this objective by giving importance to every single moment. When Judy addresses a gathering about wheelchair access, a child of a deaf adult has to interpret for hard-of-hearing people, which also forces her to learn signs for more complex words on the spot to pass on the message immediately. This also leads to multiple chaotic crosstalks, which Heder handles with finesse, so no parts of the conversation are missed by the viewers. Heder, with cinematographer Jamie D Ramsay and editor Geraud Brisson, takes on this mammoth task and achieves it with ease.