Sian Heder's Being Heumann Opens in Select Theatres on November 6

Sian Heder's new film, Being Heumann, opens in select US theatres on November 6, and it reaches Apple TV on November 13. The film tells the story of Judy Heumann, the disability rights activist who died in 2023 and was known as the "Mother of the Disability Rights Movement," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The film is an adaptation of Heumann's memoir. Ruth Madeley plays her, and Madeley is best known to many British viewers from Doctor Who. The story covers a fight that reached into federal law. In 1977, Heumann led a 28-day occupation of San Francisco's Federal Building, a protest for accessibility laws and equal rights.

Heder came to the project after years of working alongside Heumann. Associated Press reported that Heder spent more than six years bringing the story to the screen. The film made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this fall, before its premiere at AFI Fest in Los Angeles.

Heder is the writer and director who won an Academy Award for adapted screenplay for CODA, the film that also took Best Picture. She said she used the standing that win gave her to get Being Heumann made next. It is her first feature since CODA, according to Variety.

Production choices set this film apart from a typical studio drama. Heder told The Hollywood Reporter that the film has 12 disabled leads, many of them unknown actors. It is also a period piece, which meant building an accessibility team to support the cast and crew on set.

For audiences, the two release dates matter. Select theatres give the film a run on big screens in November, and the Apple TV date a week later means viewers can watch at home soon after. Studios and streamers have used that kind of short gap between cinema and home screens for several recent releases. Apple TV is part of Apple, which bought CODA in 2021 for a reported $25 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Heder also received the Impact Award for the film, a prize that recognises work with a social purpose, as The Hollywood Reporter's daily edition noted in September.

Heumann's story reaches cinemas in the same month the film's cast and team have been describing as a team effort. Whether the film finds its audience in theatres or at home will show over the coming weeks.