The Ride Ahead

Logline

Turning 21, Samuel Habib wants to date, leave home, go to college – but he has serious health, communication, and mobility challenges. Can a community of disability activist rebels help him realize his dreams?

Phase of Support: Post-Production

Dan Habib

Dan Habib - Director and Producer

Dan Habib is the co-director and producer of the Emmy Award winning NYT Op-Doc My Disability Roadmap (2022, also a Critics Choice nominee) and the director and producer of Intelligent Lives (2019, America ReFramed), and nationally broadcast (PBS) feature documentaries Including SamuelWho Cares About Kelsey? , and Mr. Connolly Has ALS. Habib is the founder of LikeRightNow Films and his documentaries have been featured at major festivals including DOC NYC, Hot Docs, and Hot Springs. Habib gave the TEDx talk, “Disabling Segregation” and received the Justice for All Grassroots Award from the American Association of People with Disabilities. In 2014, Habib was appointed by President Obama to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

Samuel Habib

Samuel Habib - Director

Samuel Habib, 23, is a community college student currently pursuing a career as a multimedia storyteller. He is the Emmy Award winning co-director of the New York Times Op-Doc My Disability Roadmap. In 2016, he created a film about disability rights leader Judith Heumann, that was featured in the Breaking Down Barriers Film Festival in Moscow, Russia. Samuel also helped Dan create the nationally broadcast film Mr. Connolly Has ALS. Samuel uses a wheelchair for mobility and a communication device (as well as his voice) to express himself. In addition to exploring his current and future academic and career options, Samuel also navigates significant, chronic health challenges.

Sara Bolder

Sara Bolder - Executive Producer

Sara Bolder produced the 2021 Oscar nominated documentary, Crip Camp. Crip Camp received the 2020 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for U.S. Documentary, the 2021 Independent Spirit award for Best Feature Documentary and a 2021 Peabody Award. Earlier in her career, Sara spent twenty years as a film and sound editor, working on Star Wars Episode One, The English Patient, Terminator 2, The Horse Whisperer, Mrs. Doubtfire and many other films. She won Golden Reel Awards from the Motion Picture Sound Editors for Best Sound Editing for Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan and was nominated for 9 other films. Feeling the pull of her activist youth, Sara changed careers and spent the next fifteen years as a fundraiser at various non-profit social justice organizations including Death Penalty Focus, Progressive Jewish Alliance and MoveOn PAC. Sara was a 2018 Sundance Creative Producing Summit Fellow.

Jim LeBrecht

Jim LeBrecht - Executive Producer

Jim LeBrecht co-directed and co-produced, with Nicole Newnham, the 2021 Oscar nominated feature length documentary, Crip Camp. Founder of Berkeley Sound Artists, an audio post-production house, his sound design documentary credits include: Minding the Gap, The Island President, The Waiting Room, Audrie and Daisy and, of course, Crip Camp. LeBrecht co-founded FWD-Doc, an organization supporting documentary filmmakers with disabilities. A character consultant for Pixar Animation Studios for two of their films, a mentor at the SFFILM’s FilmHouse residency fellowship for 3 years, he is a Disability Futures Fellow, an initiative of the Ford Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a 2020 BAFTA Breakthrough USA honoree and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Project logline and bios courtesy of the grantees.