A mime artist grunts with exertion as he hauls himself in from the left on an imaginary rope. His white gloves and white painted face glow in contrast to the totally black space that surrounds him. He wears a red neckerchief knotted over his black and white horizontally striped top. Black braces hold up his calf-length black pants with striped socks below. His top hat and shoes are black. Black diamond make-up frames his eyes and his lips are painted bright red.
He pauses in the middle of the screen and looks out at us as he speaks.
[Mime] Oh! Hello there boys and girls.
His face is obliterated by a ‘Prohibited’ sign - a red circle with a red diagonal line through it. The sign crashes into the middle of the screen with a boom. Orange flames flash through the sign. It fades as the scene changes to a seascape. Waves roll up to an empty beach.
The booming sound of waves
[Woman’s voice] Hello? Hey! Hellooo?
The scene cuts to a kitchen where a woman with shoulder length dark curly hair peers at us with a friendly smile as she talks.
[Woman] Where did you go? I wish you could tell me what happens in your head when you drift off like that.
Text in white writing on the black screen reads: ‘Drawn from true stories of people with profound physical disabilities.’
Gentle classical music plays in the background throughout the remainder of the trailer.
More text: ‘A touching, funny, infuriating, harrowing and ultimately hopeful experience…’
The screen cuts to show snippets of a series of people of different ages and ethnicities wearing virtual reality (VR) goggles. Some shake their heads, others laugh, one person, in a wheelchair, sits very still. They comment as they watch the VR
That's pretty cool!
Wow!
White text on the black screen reads: ‘“Honest and thought provoking… moving and empowering” Dr Roy C Davies, University of Auckland’
More text: ‘“Wow! … a brilliant ‘aha!’ moment a powerful learning tool” Dr Dean Sutherland, University of Canterbury’
A series of people talk as they take off the VR headsets. A young woman has tears in her eyes. People face the camera as they talk, many wearing lanyards from a conference. A man shakes his head as if he’s struggling to find words. He wipes away a tear. Some of the participants are wheelchair users and people with visible mobility impairments.
[Transcribers note: The comments of each person appear in double quotes on a separate line and may not all be in full sentences]
“Whoa!”
“Wow!”
“Wow, that was...”
“I don't know really how to describe it.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh my gosh it's amazing.”
“That's very cool.”
“It's umm...”
“Brilliant, yeah, it's special. Umm.”
“I really got angry at the mime.”
“That clown... that children's thing, GRRRR!”
“It's quite intense.”
“It's very personal”
“and powerful, as well.”
“Crazy powerful”
“It's a profound experience”
“It was really interesting but at the same time frustrating and it shows you that people have to be more mindful I think about disability because they can do much more than we sometimes give them a chance for.”
A man with cerebral palsy wipes a hand over his eyes and grins
[Man] “Welcome to my life.”
“People are coming from good places in their heart, they're just naive to it. And so, you know... you don't know, what you don't know and if you can experience it, and get that insight that's incredible.” Yeah, really valuable thing you've got there.”
“It needs to just get out to more people.”
“like the support workers, because they're often in a situation where they're thrown in without a lot of training and they have good intentions, but... we do weird things when we're uncomfortable.
“All new healthcare professionals”
“Nurses”
“Caregivers”
“I think people who work in the school system”
“Children”
“All those hundreds and thousands of people that work in those environments on a daily basis that often come fleetingly in and out of people's lives.”
“People in the general public. Everyone.”
“Everyone”
“Everyone”
“Everyone”
“Everyone”
“Everybody”
“Everybody”
“Everybody”
“Everybody on this planet.”
A woman with tear-filled eyes nods
“I think people need to watch that to feel, like more connected to the rest of the world, in a way.”
White text on a black screen reads: TalkingMimes.com
End