The film is called "Right Footed", and it is a documentary about one Jessica Cox, an attractive, accomplished and vivacious married young woman who was an honors college graduate of a psychology degree, a licensed pilot, a taekwondo black belter, an inspirational speaker, a seasoned swimmer, and a UN ambassador, who also tried sky diving.
So what was so outstanding about a film like this? The world is full of attractive, accomplished, and vivacious young married women who did all that, maybe even more!
Yes, but Jessica Cox IS different and unique because due to a rare birth defect, she was BORN WITHOUT ARMS!
Yes Jessica Cox amazes one from the moment the film opens to a shot of her applying blush on onto her cheeks with her nimble toes steadily clutching the brush!
She continues to overwhelm the audience as the documentary professionally directed by Nick Sparks and co produced by Filipina Mona Lisa Yuchengco, chronicles her life since birth through her childhood years, her school years, and her adult life, as she grabbed life uncompromisingly, and learned to do practically all the things that children, teens, and adults with complete arms can do.
She learned to ride the swing as a little girl, learned to defer her wish to play on the slide, learned to dance expertly in school Christmas pageants, learned to write with her feet, and went to college, learned to drive a car, learned to apply make up and dance with other teenage boys, learned a martial art and became good at it, learned to fly a plane, learned to swim....
In short, she learned that there was almost nothing that she couldn't do if she put her mind to it...and she never used her physical disability as a n excuse not to do anything.
She credits her mother, a Filipina originally from Tacloban, with raising her as an ordinary, normal child. Sure, that she had no arms was an accident of birth...but to be able to enjoy life was her birthright.
As she hurdled challenge after challenge, and achieved one milestone after another, she resolved to do two things.... One was to honor her mother and father with their incredibly nurturing rearing style; and two, was to use her accomplishments to advocate that nothing was impossible for other individuals born with physical handicaps, especially without two arms.
The first she did by continuing to care for her mother even after she was stricken with cancer. She further honored her mother by visiting the Philippines especially after Typhoon Haiyan and trying to raise funds and awareness for the plight of people whose lives were destroyed and ravaged by calamity and disaster! The second she did by openly and eloquently sharing her story with the rest of the world, one small group and community at a time, ultimately going to far flung continents like Africa to share her story of hope.
She married her Taekwondo instructor, Patrick Chamberlain, who was so smitten with her courage and determination, not to mention her charms, that he proposed and she accepted. They sealed their vows with an anklet to replace the ring, and they celebrated their wedding with a specially choreographed first dance number. And he has set aside his own career and other plans to help her in her mission to share her story and advocacy with the rest of the world! Now that's a real honest to goodness love story!!!
Jessica Cox reminds one of Nick Vjucic, the extraordinary young man born without arms and legs and limits, and the artist Christie who was immortalized in the film My Left Foot by Daniel Day Lewis.
"Right Footed" is the title of the documentary to dramatize her equanimity in accepting her condition, and making the most of it by saying that she could only write with the right foot, hence she was right footed, the way most other people say they are right handed!
The film has been entered into and honored in a number of international film festivals.
For me the moral of this film is that we are all born the same, each one of us has his and her own share of abilities and disabilities, some open, otherwise undiagnosed. We should embrace all individuals with disability as fellow human beings and give them e respect and dignity we demand, and that they deserve, being children of God and the universe.
In a world otherwise preoccupied with the material and the worldly, seeing this film, and being reminded that there is more to life...and that heroes and heroines are found in our midst, people like you and me...that kind of inspiration could only have been divinely intuited and heaven sent!
No comments:
Post a Comment