Dan Habib is a filmmaker at the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability. He is the creator of several award-winning documentary films, including Samuel, Who Cares About Kelsey?, Restraint and Seclusion: Hear Our Stories. In 2014, Habib was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, a committee that promotes policies and initiatives that support independence and lifelong inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.
For his current project, which focuses on the transition of students with intellectual disabilities from high school to the workplace, Habib chose ConVal as one of just four schools nationwide to be included in his documentary. At ConVal, he filmed a Unified Basketball game in January, then returned in March to film additional footage, following Garret Shows throughout the day. Habib was particularly interested in filming Shows’ participation in Brian Pickering’s Student-Principal Advisory Committee, lunch, and the inclusionary practices in the Health/Physical Education and Environmental Science classes.
Habib’s third day filming at ConVal took place last week and was devoted to Garrett’s participation in a theatre arts class as well as his after-school work experience at Shaws. Priscilla Morrill of the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, who happened to be at the high school that morning for a different reason, captured Garrett’s interactions with Habib. Please see her excellent article “Documenting Inclusion Practices: Award-winning filmmaker selects local high school for its work in helping students with disabilities” online.