Key Changes
A Portrait of Lisa Thorson
By Cindy Marshall

This elegant video profiles Lisa Thorson, a successful jazz singer, who uses a wheelchair. Artfully weaving performance footage with interviews, it demonstrates how she challenges stereotypes, and advocates for people with disabilities through her work. Though an accident during rehearsal for a stage stunt damaged her spinal cord when she was twenty-one, nine months later she was back at work, retraining her voice. Today she is in demand from clubs to concert halls to school auditoriums, but finds few of them are wheelchair accessible.

With her sometimes subtle ways of confronting prejudices against people with disabilities, Thorson ably embodies her view that, "The more people with disabilities are out in the community visibly doing what they do best, that's the greatest form of advocacy there can be."

28 minutes
© 1993
Purchase $149 DVD
Order No. QA-111
ISBN (DVD) 1-57295-930-4

Awards & Conference Screenings
National Health Information Awards
Disability and the Arts Conference

Related Films
Able to Laugh: An amusing and informative glimpse into the world of disability, as interpreted by six professional comics who have a variety of disabilities.

Not Just Surviving: Four women who have been living with Spinal Cord Injury for as long as 30 years discuss topics that include rehabilitation, healthcare, sexuality, parenting, menopause, and how to live day-to-day with hope.

We Are PHAMALy: Follows cast members of a musical theater group for people with sensory and mobility disabilities, from auditions to their remarkable opening night performance of Once Upon a Mattress.

Women: Coming Out of the Shadows: Ten women, of all ages and from all walks of life, share their stories of alcohol addiction and recovery.

HOME  ||  TITLE INDEX  ||  SUBJECT AREAS  ||  RESOURCES  ||  RETURN TO TOP
CONTACT FANLIGHT  ||  FAQ