Being Heumann Makes Staying the Hard Part
Leaving would be easier. The people in Being Heumann stay anyway, occupying a federal building in 1977 to demand action on disability rights. That is a better reason to be interested in a historical drama than the prospect of watching someone collect a lifetime’s worth of achievements.
The film reaches select theaters on November 6 and Apple TV on November 13. Ruth Madeley plays the activist at the centre of the occupation. Mark Ruffalo plays the official blocking the protesters. The setup puts people who cannot afford to wait in a room with the consequences of refusing to leave.
In her British Vogue interview, Madeley spoke about the responsibility of portraying the activist.
That responsibility need not mean a night of solemn admiration. The original San Francisco sit-in lasted twenty-eight days, according to Vogue’s account. Staying for that long means eating together, getting tired of one another and waking up to the same unresolved demand. Those mundane pressures give a film somewhere to go after the stirring speech.
I want the irritation and the humour to have room alongside the courage. People sharing a cause do not suddenly acquire matching temperaments. A protest drama that remembers this can make collective action feel far more impressive than one in which everybody is brave on cue.
That is the attraction here: the work of staying, once the thrill of arriving has worn off. The premise makes a strong case for watching; it leaves the film with the job of making these particular people matter.
Check local listings for Being Heumann from November 6. If the limited theatrical run misses you, the Apple TV release follows on November 13. This is a useful one to save for a shared movie night, with time afterwards to argue about how long you would have lasted in that building.
