A Festival Pitstop for Filmmaker Samuel Habib’s The Ride Ahead

Youth have at all times been on the forefront of change, whether or not by breaking the established order, pushing for innovation, or heightening our expectations for a extra sustainable, inclusive future.

During the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program, Youth and the Future Culture, the theme “The World We Want” embodied this by bringing collectively youth advocates who’re utilizing their skills to form their—and our—future. One of those younger artists was Samuel Habib, the filmmaker behind The Ride Ahead, a feature-length documentary he produced with Dan Habib, his father. The movie builds upon his Emmy Award-winning op-doc, My Disability Roadmap.

Habib has GNAO1 Neurodevelopmental Disorder, a uncommon genetic dysfunction that precipitated cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and speech challenges. Because of his dysfunction, he travels through wheelchair and makes use of a computerized communication gadget to talk with others. His newest movie challenge shares his and different disabled people’ tales to extend inclusion in addition to give perception into the numerous methods folks work together with the world.

“Disabled people should have their voices heard, and we should be able to tell our own stories,” Habib mentioned. “I don’t like that movies and stories about disabled people are often about curing, or saving, or even killing the person because they have a disability. Or you will see someone with a disability have an average talent at something and people will be ‘inspired’ and respond to the talent in a way they might not to someone that doesn’t have a disability.”

Habib’s filmmaking began early in his life—sooner than his dad, he proudly notes. In excessive college, he made a movie titled Rolling Through Downtown Concord about rebuilding his hometown to create accessibility on Main Street. For a college challenge, he made a brief film concerning the famed incapacity rights activist Judy Heumann, who would grow to be a mentor he interviewed in The Ride Ahead. He’s additionally performed many interviews, together with a collection known as “The Sports Sitdown,” revealed by the Concord Monitor, in addition to questioned a number of political figures like then Vice President Joe Biden.

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At that time, all of Habib’s filmmaking experiences had been journalistic. He needed to do one thing completely different along with his abilities, so The Ride Ahead started to take form. Learning how one can be an grownup and navigate the world is already troublesome, however doing so with a incapacity provides extra issues. His answer: get recommendation from mentors throughout the disabled neighborhood and movie all of it to share with others who might have the identical steerage.

“It’s a very different experience making a personal documentary, but it’s helping me navigate the scary, confusing path after high school that I and millions of other young adults with disabilities face,” he expressed.

While just a few folks Habib interviewed had been new faces, many had been acquainted folks he’s lengthy admired, such as incapacity activists Judy Heumann, Bob Williams, and Keith Jones. “All of the people I wanted to interview for this film are great advocates and role models for kids and young adults with disabilities,” he mentioned. “I wanted to ask them and other people I admired about their transition to adulthood to help me and others be successful.”

Preparing for these interviews was arduous and time-consuming, and Habib made certain that labor was deliberately showcased within the movie. If he was going to share numerous experiences from the disabled neighborhood, he was additionally going to point out his personal, each joyful and troublesome.

“I spent weeks preparing for the interviews using my computerized communication device, which now has thousands of words and phrases programmed by my dad on dozens of pages,” he mentioned. “We wanted to be transparent about this, [so we used] a scene in the film to show exactly how we, and also Bob Williams, navigate communication challenges with painstaking effort.”

Habiib additionally utilized this thought to the movie’s digital camera angles. “I want audiences to feel what it’s like to see the world from my wheelchair, so we mounted two 4K GoPro cameras to my wheelchair—one facing me just below eye level, the other filming the world before me,” Habib defined.

This intentional vulnerability and honesty behind all points of the movie wasn’t simple for Habib, however filming The Ride Ahead and assembly so many mentors throughout the incapacity neighborhood empowered him to share extra about himself and his private experiences.

“Some of the medical stuff was difficult to share,” he mentioned. “I’ve had trauma from a lot of blood work and IVs from when I was a baby. It’s difficult to get my blood drawn. I get nervous when I have to go into the ER. It doesn’t feel good to talk about that, but I wanted to show my strength, that I’ve gotten through some very tough things in my life. Same for a lot of other people with disabilities.”

Producing the movie took many folks and their abilities. Besides Habib, his father, and the interviewees, a number of producers, a social media supervisor, animators, and varied others helped deliver the movie to fruition.

“Although we worked together as a team, each person involved with the production of this film has their strengths that we tried to highlight in different ways,” he mentioned. “I have enjoyed being able to work with my dad so closely on something we are both very passionate about.”

“Also, we created an advisory board for this film project,” Habib added. “Everyone on the advisory board are young adults with disabilities. Advisory board members gave us awesome feedback on the film and for our educational materials and outreach and publicity campaigns.”

Habib has excessive hopes for The Ride Ahead and what it’s going to do for the long run. “We created this documentary and our impact campaign so that millions of young adults with disabilities will feel more seen and heard and find their mentors,” he expressed. “As someone who struggles to communicate, this film is incredibly meaningful to me because it is making my experience visible, and it is getting mine and others’ voices heard. I can’t wait to see how it changes the landscape. I think it’s going to help improve the world for disabled people.”

The Ride Ahead has already had a streaming run on PBS and a myriad of in-person screenings. The one on the Warner Bros. Theater within the National Museum of American History throughout the Folklife Festival, nevertheless, was particular as a result of two folks featured within the movie, Bob Williams and Ly Xīnzhèn Zhǎngsūn Brown, had been in a position to be within the viewers. Each screening that Habib attends, he famous, reaffirms the movie’s function.

“I feel like my goals for the film are being achieved every time I watch it with an audience, like we did at the Festival,” Habib mentioned. “My goal for the film is that people won’t talk down to disabled people. I want everyone to know that disabled people demand respect and rights, and I want other young adults with disabilities to have the same opportunities that I’ve had for health care, inclusive education, college, assistive technology, jobs, making friends, advocacy, and independent living.”

One of Habib’s biggest aspirations for the movie is that it’ll spur larger inclusion inside households and faculties. “I hope parents who will watch this film will see that they should include their kids in everything like my family has done,” he mentioned. “I hope schools and colleges who watch this film will commit to including disabled students alongside their non-disabled peers. All my schools have been inclusive, and that made a big impact on my education and led to my life now as a filmmaker.” 

Habib additionally hopes that The Ride Ahead will encourage folks to speak with members of the incapacity neighborhood, himself included, like another particular person, simply somebody whose wants are completely different. “This film will help people understand how to talk to me and other people with communication challenges,” he expressed. “Be patient and do not talk down to me. Ask me how I best communicate. Slow down the pace of the conversation to create more space for me to contribute.”

While impression takes time, Habib famous that he has already began to see how his movie is affecting his neighborhood.

“Young people with disabilities who have seen the film so far have told me that they have the same questions as I do about dating, sex, moving out of their own family’s home, how to respond when people talk down to them, work, and college,” he mentioned. “That means a lot to me. I am part of a strong disability community. We want change and are going to fight for respect and rights at every opportunity. People paved the way for me. I want to pave the way for others.”

Shauri Thacker is a Folklife Storytellers Workshop intern specializing in writing and modifying. She graduated from Southern Utah University final yr with a bachelor’s diploma in English, artistic writing emphasis.