On the 20th of November 2024, me and my family went to the cinema for the ‘Into Film Festival 2024’ to watch ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’ (2023). It was produced by ‘Hot Property Films’ and ‘Tiger Lily Films Limited’ whilst being directed by Ella Bee Glendining who is also the woman that this film is about.

This documentary is rated 12A (ages 12 and over but younger audiences have to be accompanied by an adult). I agree with this rating due to the show of alcohol and smoking but also the talk of ableism and the negativity based around disabled people. Younger individuals may not understand the documentary all together as well as the impact it is supposed to have on the reader.

This documentary follows Ella’s life and thoughts as she was born without hip bones and very short femurs. Ella Glendining, filmmaker, searches the world for individuals who have the same, rare disability as herself. She has a disability called ‘Proximal femoral focus deficiency’ (PFFD), though this isn’t the term used in the film; it’s the scientific version. In Brighton where she lives, she faces daily discrimination as people point and stare because she inhabits and loves her own body as she explores what it takes to love oneself massively despite the pervasiveness of ableism. This documentary is deeply personal and very honest as she speaks up and voices her thoughts and feelings on ableism and other people with disabilities the same as hers and different ones, physical and invisible (e.g. autism).

 She seeks out others, from small children to adults who want to share their own experiences and make an impact on the world as they were written off and discarded as ‘different’. Ella explores her condition further as she visits a surgeon in the Us, Miami, who is an expert on lengthening leg bones. The operation to do lengthen the bones are usually carried out on infants (3 years maximum) who cannot give their consent due to their age and misunderstanding towards the situation. She listens to people’s experiences and the concept of being ‘normal’ that the parents want for their children weighs heavily on her mind.

This self-documentary is built up from the years-long footage of her life. The experience for Ella is limited due to the reliance on interviews that the COVID-19 pandemic delayed. She also starts a family in this time which is emotional for Glendining as well as the viewers because she wanted a natural birth but the medical side of it was too risky and she had to have the baby a month early. Her baby isn’t born with her disability because it’s not genetically transmitted and Ella loves him the way he is and she feels connected to him even more because she had troubles with the pregnancy and he survived it all with being a month early out of the womb.

We see clips from the 1900’s (possibly from the 1950s-1960s) about a boy who was born with very short arms and legs. It was a very emotional and disheartening part of the film because his parents gave up on him and his mother said in a different room to him ‘he won’t get married/ no one will marry him’ and ‘he won’t get a job’. Ella, later on in the documentary, zoom calls the same boy many years later and he showed her his wife and his two beautiful children. This was very heart-warming to see him with his family after his mother believed he wouldn’t have one.

Furthermore, this documentary is very eye-opening and inspiring to people who have a disability who feel like they need to be ‘normal’ and they don’t like how they appear. The topics on ableism are very deep and I like how she loves her body and she supports every disabled person even when other people point and stare. ‘Normal’ doesn’t mean anything. We are all unique in our own way but the human race don’t want to be associated with ‘different’ people and I hate that so much but Ella argues back and defends the disabled community. I admire and respect her so much for that because she wants everyone to engage and live together as one world with no discrimination and ableism that brings them down. One of the parts I disliked is when she is interviewing her mum and Ella mentioned that people ask why she is an only child. The people thought that her mum didn’t want another child because of the fear that it may look like Ella and have her disability. The reason I dislike this is because it’s so upsetting that people think like that; it’s so cruel and honestly disgusting that their minds work like that.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary. It’s a celebration that the resilience of the disabled community is growing in all its diversity. The emotional impacts were deep about disabled pride and they really affected me with new thoughts, opinions, and emotions. I feel like I’m actually there with her and I’m empathising with her. I would definitely recommend this to people who want to feel a deep emotional impact and connection that you rethink over and over. I rate this documentary: 4.5/5 stars!