The 13th annual Easterseals Disability Film Challenge features two new short films about Long COVID. For the competition, filmmaking teams were tasked with creating a one to five minute film to promote disability inclusion in the entertainment industry. All of the film’s creative work had to be done over the course of the five active days of the contest.
Back to the Dark Ages follows Christina (Makenzie Morgan Gomez), a former Broadway dancer and marathoner who becomes disabled by Long COVID. One morning she accidentally summons the ghost of Wilhelmina the Philanderer (Mary von Aue), a woman who died begging her medieval village to take the Black Death seriously. Meanwhile, Strangely Optimistic introduces viewers to two-time Grammy- and Emmy-nominated singer-songwriter Nina Storey, as she chugs pickle juice and spends the day being gaslit by everyone in her life as she develops Long COVID during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s Easterseals Disability Film Challenge asked filmmakers to create a dramedy. The comedic-drama genre is an ideal fit for Long COVID storytelling: it leans into emotion, but also into the kind of absurdist and dark humor that resonates with so many people with chronic illnesses and disabilities.
In Strangely Optimistic, for example, Nina’s witless telehealth doctor advises her to exercise more, get a hobby, consider her hormones, talk to someone — oh, and did he mention exercise more? Doctor’s appointments appear in Back to the Dark Ages, too. In one scene, Christina tries to convince Wilhelmina the Philanderer that she has friends and is not lonely by holding up her very full phone calendar. “Doctor, doctor, doctor, watch Heated Riiiv-aal-ree,” Wilhelmina reads. “Odd! All of your friends are physicians!”
Both characters’ struggles and ridiculous encounters with ableism are extremely relatable to people with Long COVID, as are the images of them being some of the only people in their worlds wearing respirators.
Strangely Optimistic was written and directed by Nina Storey and was produced in collaboration with Julie Lam, the founder of the advocacy group Mask Together America.
“Living in a reality where so many have moved on, it’s an honor to give a voice to those who have felt left behind,” lead actress in Back to the Dark Ages Makenzie Morgan Gomez, who lives with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and other chronic illnesses, shared in a press release. “There’s a unique kind of loneliness that comes with living with a chronic illness that Back to the Dark Ages captures, while also highlighting a universal truth: deep down, all humans have a yearning for connection and understanding in their own way.”
Anna Pakman, two-time winner of the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge, wrote and directed Back to the Dark Ages. “The film features a disabled cast… and was made by a predominantly disabled crew with extensive COVID precautions to facilitate in-person filming,” Pakman told The Sick Times in an email. The film’s press release confirms that the production team includes people with “Long COVID and post-COVID health conditions in the cast, crew, writers’ room, and marketing team.”
One of the most demanding parts of the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge was the time constraints.
“The production was a grueling five-day sprint, mirroring the high-stakes requirements of the challenge,” the Strangely Optimistic team said in a press release. “For Storey and Lam, both of whom live with Long COVID, the intensive deadline was more than a creative hurdle — it was a physical one. The demands of the shoot triggered significant symptom flare-ups for both creators, illustrating the push-crash cycle that defines the Long Hauler experience.”
“The flare-ups we experienced are a direct reflection of what millions face every day,” said Storey. “We pushed ourselves to the limit because we want people to feel the irony of being Strangely Optimistic while battling a multisystemic crisis.”
Easterseals Disability Film Challenge short films will be judged in six award categories: best actor, best director, best writer, best editor, and best awareness campaign. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at Sony Pictures Studios on May 7.
You can watch all the films on the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge’s YouTube channel.
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