A screening of the documentary “Fixed: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement” was held at the Recital Hall Thursday, Oct. 15. as part of Disability Awareness Month,

This event was held as a way to begin a conversation about disability at Los Medanos College. The name of the film, “Fixed” explores the two sides of the argument — what needs to be fixed, people with disabilities or society?

Blue notecards were placed on each reserved seat thanking them for attending the event and encouraging their feedback as far as how the film impacted them and any future events on disability that they’d like to see at LMC in the future.

The event began with Dean of Counseling and Student Support Jeffery Benford welcoming the audience and thanking them for being a part of the event. He used his nametag as an example of how perception plays a role in what is normal. To others wearing his nametag upside down may not be normal, but others may view his tag as right side up.

“Who decides what’s normal?” asked Benford.

Going on, he introduced the Brentwood Center Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS) Counselor Nina Ghiselli.
Before the film a short clip from Superfest, an International Disability Film Festival at which “Fixed” will be shown at this year, was presented. In the beginning there were audio difficulties, likely resulting from the descriptive narration for the visually impaired.

“It’s more than just accommodation,” said Ghiselli “Accommodation is great, but you don’t need to be fixed.”
Despite this, Ghiselli was able to use this as an example of how technology may not always be reliable.

Following the clip, she shared a brief speech about how most people don’t understand disability while the film was being set up.
“There’s this weird thing that happens when you have a disability. People, as soon as they find out you have a disability, they suddenly have a PhD in the thing you have,” she joked.

After the showing of the film, a Q and A was held with Director of the film Reagan Brashear. The panel consisting of Ghiselli, drama professor Nick Garcia and athletics counselor Michelle Mack, along with the audience, were given to opportunity to ask Brashear questions regarding the film such as why she decided to take on this film and how she was able to achieve a balance between both sides.

Released in 2013, the film took seven years to make first starting as Brashear’s thesis film at UC Santa Cruz for the social documentation masters program. She edited a majority of the film along another editor, Josh Peterson.

“With this film it’s like you’re entering my internal conundrum of meeting all of these amazing people and being challenged at every turn,” said Brashear.