Sian Heder Says “Collective Action Matters” as ‘Being Heumann’ Opens Toronto Film Festival
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
Director Sian Heder opened the 51st Toronto International Film Festival with the premiere of Being Heumann, her drama about disability-rights activist Judy Heumann, telling the Roy Thomson Hall audience that "collective action matters" at a time when "a lot of groups of people are getting left behind." Heder, the Oscar-winning director of CODA, said rights won in the 1970s "are under threat" and admitted to feeling uncertain about the value of protest despite having joined demonstrations herself this year. The screening carried added resonance in Toronto amid strained US-Canada relations under President Donald Trump, with a groundswell of Canadian patriotism evident among the audience.
The Apple Original Films production stars Ruth Madeley as Heumann, dramatising her landmark 1977 protest campaign that helped launch the US disability-rights movement and paved the way for the Americans With Disabilities Act. Following the screening, Heder brought her cast of disability actors on stage for a Q&A, while Madeley thanked the director for trusting her with the role. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow also spoke at the opening, alluding to Trump's renaming of a Great Lake as "Lake America" by affirming the city's waterfront would "always be Lake Ontario." The trade dispute is expected to loom over the festival, given that roughly two-thirds of Canadian film and TV exports go to the US market; TIFF runs until 20 September.
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In short
- Being Heumann, a disability-rights drama, opened TIFF's 51st edition
- Director Sian Heder said "collective action matters" amid rights rollbacks
- US-Canada trade tensions and patriotism coloured the opening night
How this story developed
- 2 months ago Director Sian Heder opened the 51st Toronto International Film Festival by premiering Being Heumann, her drama about disability-rights activist Judy Heumann, telling the Roy Thomson Hall audience that "collective action matters" at a time when "a lot of groups of people are getting left behind." Heder, the Oscar-winning director of CODA, said rights won in the 1970s "are under threat" and admitted to feeling uncertain about the value of protest despite joining demonstrations herself this year.
- 2 months ago Director Sian Heder opened the 51st Toronto International Film Festival with the premiere of Being Heumann, her drama about disability-rights activist Judy Heumann, telling the Roy Thomson Hall audience that "collective action matters" at a time when "a lot of groups of people are getting left behind." Heder, the Oscar-winning director of CODA, said rights won in the 1970s "are under threat" and admitted to feeling uncertain about the value of protest despite having joined demonstrations herself this year.
- 2 months ago Director Sian Heder used the opening night of the 51st Toronto International Film Festival to argue that "collective action matters," introducing her new film Being Heumann about disability-rights activism.
Full account
Sian Heder, the Oscar-winning writer-director of CODA, opened the 51st Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday night with her new film Being Heumann, telling the audience at Roy Thomson Hall that the story's message of solidarity feels especially urgent today. Introducing the Apple Original Films drama, Heder said she wanted audiences to understand that "collective action matters" at a moment when, in her words, many groups of people are being left behind and rights won decades ago are once again under pressure.
Heder spoke candidly about her own sense of political fatigue, telling the crowd she had spent much of the past year joining street protests while wondering whether such gestures achieve anything when there are so many causes competing for attention. She framed Being Heumann, which centres on activist Judy Heumann and the landmark 1977 occupation of a federal building in San Francisco, as a reminder of what sustained, organised pressure can achieve: the sit-in helped force the signing of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, a precursor to the Americans with Disabilities Act. She told the audience the film was about what happens "when people refused to be invisible", before inviting her ensemble of disabled cast members on stage for a Q&A, where lead actor Ruth Madeley thanked Heder for trusting her with the role.
Madeley, who was born with spina bifida, plays Heumann with what reviewers have described as fearless conviction, anchoring a film that is structured less as a conventional biopic and more as an ensemble portrait of the wider disability-rights movement. Supporting performances include Antwan Tolliver as Black Panther activist Brad Lomax, Madeline Delp as fellow organiser Kitty Cone, and Roberta Colindrez as Heumann's confidante and sometime carer Joni Breves, while Dylan O'Brien plays a television reporter whose assumptions are upended after he embeds himself with the protesters. Mark Ruffalo appears as government official Joseph Califano, bringing what one review called an exhausted, stubborn resistance to a bureaucrat under mounting pressure to act — a role noted as resonant given Ruffalo's own long-running activism.
The premiere unfolded against a backdrop of heightened Canadian sentiment towards the United States, with Toronto mayor Olivia Chow using her opening remarks to allude, without naming Donald Trump directly, to his recent attempt to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America" amid stalled trade talks, drawing loud applause when she insisted the lake would keep its name. Organisers and commentators expect the ongoing tariff dispute between the two countries to loom over this year's festival, given that roughly two-thirds of Canadian film and television exports go to the US market. TIFF continues through to 20 September.
Where outlets differ
From the full account, which is AI-written from the sources:
Source 1 (The Hollywood Reporter) focuses on the premiere event itself — Heder's and Madeley's on-stage remarks, the political undertone of the evening, and Toronto mayor Olivia Chow's pointed comments about Trump amid the US-Canada trade dispute — while barely describing the film's plot or performances beyond naming Madeley and the disabled ensemble cast.
Source 2 is a film review rather than an event report; it gives a detailed critical assessment of the film itself — its ensemble structure, its two-hour runtime (described as somewhat excessive), and individual performances including Ruffalo's, O'Brien's and Colindrez's — but includes none of the festival-night political context, Chow's remarks, or Heder's on-stage comments about protest and helplessness.
Only Source 1 covers the wider TIFF opening context (51st edition, Trump/tariffs backdrop, festival dates); only Source 2 covers narrative and historical detail such as the Rehabilitation Act's Section 504 and Madeley's own disability.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Advocates of Heder's stance argue that artists have both a right and a responsibility to use high-profile platforms to spotlight causes they believe in, especially when a film's subject matter directly concerns civil rights. They would note that Judy Heumann's own story shows collective action winning tangible legal protections, so drawing a contemporary parallel is not gratuitous politicking but a faithful extension of the film's theme, and that filmmakers and mayors alike are entitled to defend their communities and values from a public podium.
The case against
Others would counter that film premieres and festival stages ought to remain focused on the work itself rather than becoming vehicles for political messaging, arguing that inserting current disputes, including national tensions with the United States, risks alienating parts of the audience and overshadowing the achievements of the cast and crew. They might also point out that Heder's own admitted uncertainty about protest's effectiveness illustrates a broader, reasonable scepticism about whether public demonstrations and celebrity statements meaningfully change policy outcomes, as opposed to more targeted legal or legislative approaches.
Explained simply
Being Heumann is a new film dramatising the 1977 US disability-rights protests led by activist Judy Heumann, a campaign that helped bring about the Americans With Disabilities Act. It was directed by Sian Heder and stars Ruth Madeley, with Apple Original Films producing, and it opened the 51st Toronto International Film Festival, one of the world's most prominent showcases for new cinema.
The premiere took place against a backdrop of strained relations between Canada and the United States under President Trump, including trade tensions that affect the film industry, since a large share of Canadian film and television exports go to the US market. This context gave the film's themes of activism and rights an added contemporary resonance for those attending.
Toronto's mayor, Olivia Chow, also spoke at the event, and Heder appeared afterwards with her cast, several of whom are disabled actors, for a discussion about the film and its themes.
Coverage · 2 sources
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