Next Screening: Wednesday, June 18th! HEAVY LOAD: A FILM ABOUT HAPPINESS ... followed by Q & A with the band and gig @ Arlene's Grocery with 4 Wheel City! Director: Jerry Rothwell Genre: Documentary Running Time: 90 minutes Start Time: 5:30 to 8:30p.m.  Screening starts promptly @ 6:00 pm Where: DCTV @ The Firehouse 3rd Floor Screening Room 87 Lafayette St (between Walker & White) Closest subway stops: N/Q/R/W, J/M/Z, or 6 to Canal Street.  DCTV is located two blocks South of Canal Street in NYC. VIEW MAP Cost: $5 About us: The disTHIS! Film Series, a program of the Disabilities Network of NYC in association with DCTV, is a showcase of festival quality independent and international short, documentary and feature films with disability themes beyond clichés. disTHIS! movies are always provocative; never what you’d expect. No handkerchief necessary, no heroism required. This is disability through a whole new lens!   The disTHIS! Film Series is made possible by the generous support of The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, the Screen Actors Guild, the NYU Community Fund, the United Way and our members.

Join disTHIS! for the NY premiere of HEAVY LOAD: A FILM ABOUT HAPPINESS, a feature documentary about the UK’s only ‘mixed-ability’ punk band prior to the movies premiere on IFC, June 23rd! 

IFC and other media outlets will be there to document the film screening and concert at Arlene's Grocery which follows!  This will be the band's first gig in the NYC and is a rare chance to catch one of their energetic, and sometimes chaotic, live performances - which have made them cult heroes in the UK!

With the support of disTHIS!, Heavy Load will also be bringing their STAY UP LATE campaign to the United States! The STAY UP LATE effort fights for YOUR right to party -- ensuring people with disabilities who want go out at night aren't forced to go home early because their support workers don't want to work late.

HEAVY LOAD: A FILM ABOUT HAPPINESS opened to rave reviews last March at the SXSW Festival in Austin, TX. Rural England’s answer to the Ramones, the band includes musicians with and without developmental disabilities. True to their punk roots, the band was recently considered “too hardcore for BBC Radio Four” (the English equivalent of NPR) when a segment on the band was axed from a story about disability and self-determination. HEAVY LOAD: A FILM ABOUT HAPPINESS chronicles a year in the life of the band as they hit the road and attempt to navigate a combustible flux of ego, ambition and fantasy that fuels any emerging act on tour.

“Don’t be misled by the title. HEAVY LOAD: A FILM ABOUT HAPPINESS plays like Metallica’s SOME KIND OF MONSTER meets HOW’S YOUR NEWS,” says disTHIS! curator, Lawrence Carter-Long. “It’s everything you want in a band movie with a disability twist. Not to be missed!”

disTHIS! movies, talkback sessions and related events are open to the public. Cost: $5 In English. Open captioned. ASL interpretation and audio description available upon request. Space is wheelchair accessible. There is a cash bar for drinks, but seating is limited to the first 65 people! Screenings are regularly filled to capacity.

After the screening, STAY UP LATE with HEAVY LOAD and disTHIS! as the guys make their NYC concert debut @ Arlene’s Grocery (95 Stanton) with local krip-hop favorites FOUR WHEEL CITY!!!  Concert tickets only $8! Click here for directions!