21-year-old filmmaker Samuel Habib was diagnosed at an early age with the rare GNA01 genetic disorder, which has led to his growing up with cerebral palsy and language difficulties. With the assistance of his father and co-director Dan Habib, Samuel presents a matter-of-fact autobiographical documentary about his transition to adulthood: going to college, moving out of home, and looking for a girlfriend. He also travels across the USA, meeting several key figures with disability and quizzing them on suggestions on how he should better navigate the society around him.

The Ride Ahead is a phenomenally relevant documentary feature. It is an expansion of Habib’s earlier Emmy-winning short My Disability Roadmap, and he and his father make excellent use of the additional time. It is strikingly honest and open about the disability experience as Habib lives it. By interviewing other individuals, each who brings their own lived diagnosis and experience, he expands the scope of his film from the personal into the social. The disability experience understandably varies from one person to the next, but it is remarkable how common the challenges of an able-bodied culture can be. The social model of disability – that it’s not someone’s health that makes them disabled, but they’re treated by others – is a dominant theme.

The scenes of Habib’s day-to-day life resonate with those broader experiences. The viewer sits alongside Habib in situations like waiting to get on a plane – in one case an attendant treats him as if he is a pre-schooler, in another baggage handlers badly damage his wheelchair – or meeting politicians as part of his advocacy work (President Biden is somewhat inappropriate). It is very easy to feel enraged on his behalf, and of course that is a perfectly appropriate reaction, but at the same time Habib makes it repeatedly clear that these challenges – all human-made – affect people with disability everywhere and all of the time.

Habib deftly serves his audience with these situations, but is smart in leavening those sequences with plenty of humour and the showcasing of his own family’s support. He is an immensely likeable lead, and ensures that he communicates his message in a way that viewers enjoy watching. Critically there is no request for sympathy in what Habib says. As one of his interview subjects wisely puts it, ‘I’m not after you pity; I’m after your respect.’

The film also makes use of brief animated sequences to illustrate personal stories, or to act as segues from scene to scene. It adds another seam of entertainment to an already rock-solid presentation.

I am aware that this film resonated in particular with me because, like Samuel Habib and his interview subjects, I have a disability. I was not born with mine, but acquired it seven years ago, yet in my own way recognise the challenges people discuss here. This is authentic, powerful stuff. The able-bodied world needs to listen to what we have to say.

The Ride Ahead is screening at the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival. Click here for more information.