Category: Q&A

Father and son filmmakers talk about their newest documentary

The Ride Ahead is a documentary from the father-son director team of Dan and Samuel Habib that follows 21-year-old Samuel as he navigates the challenges of growing up while he experiences GNAO1, a rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder that caused his cerebral palsy, epilepsy and speech challenges, according to the film’s website. The duo won at the 44th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards in 2023 with their New York Times Op-Doc My Disability Roadmap, which is essentially a trailer for this documentary. The film was first screened as a New Hampshire premiere at the opening night of the New Hampshire Film Festival. The Concord premiere will be on Monday, Dec. 2, at the Bank of NH Stage (16 S. Main St.) at 6 p.m. The Ride Ahead will also be screened at Red River Theatres (11 S. Main St., Concord) at various times from Tuesday, Dec. 3, to Thursday, Dec. 12. Visit rideaheadfilm.com for more information or ccanh.com and redrivertheatres.org for tickets.

Can you give a brief overview of the film and the kind of the journey that this endeavor has taken you and Samuel on?

Dan Habib: The Ride Ahead is a new feature-length documentary that Samuel and I just finished this past year. It’s been four years in the making. We produced it right through Covid, which was a big challenge, but it started out because, as Samuel may share a little bit in his comments, Samuel had a very inclusive school experience, a lot of great friends here in Concord, in Concord High School, but then you graduate and it’s very confusing to know how to transition to adulthood for a lot of people, not just people with disabilities. Samuel had a lot of questions about his education, his employment, relationships, where he’s going to live, how he’s going to make new friends, right? I mean, things you talk about all the time. So we just hatched this idea that he could both learn how to navigate the path of adulthood by reaching out to mentors in the disability world who had already been through that transition about their experiences while making a film about that journey, about that exploration of all these questions.

We started researching it back in 2019 and Samuel started thinking about people he wanted to interview, some of whom he knew for years, like Pete Jones and Judy Heumann and Bob Williams, some people he had just heard about and he wanted to reach out to. The film is documenting Samuel’s journey into adulthood while he reaches out for guidance from these badass adults with disabilities all over the country. We decided to also film it from a first-person point of view. Samuel has two GoPro cameras mounted on his wheelchair, one facing in, one facing out, that filmed Samuel’s life experiences throughout that time, and then we would hire professional crews to film the interviews. One of the really important things we decided from the beginning was to hire a majority disabled film and outreach crew. The majority of the people that had paid jobs in this film are disabled people And that’s very unique in the documentary industry, so we’re really proud of that too.

What were some challenges in making the film?

Samuel Habib: Setting up and getting all of the interviews done was the most challenging part of creating the film. We had a lot of misadventures during our travels. On our flight to Indianapolis to interview Andrew Peterson, they turned my power wheelchair on its side both ways — and it got damaged both ways! On our trip to D.C. to interview Judy Heumann and Bob Williams, we had a six-hour flight delay, and then as we were finally boarding our plane, another passenger talked down to me, like I was a 3-year-old. On our New York City trip to interview Keith Jones and Maysoon Zayid, I had a seizure. But we still got the filming done on all the trips!

What were some of the highlights of making the film?

SH: The interviews were awesome, they blew my mind. I reviewed the best sections from the interviews with my dad and we picked out the most powerful lines. I wanted to have lots of humor in the film, so we included some hilarious lines from interviews, especially Keith Jones and Maysoon Zayid. But Judy Heumann was pretty funny too. My favorite line in the film is Keith telling me his advice for sex: Rule number one…. Rule number two…. All the way down to 100: ‘Bag it up.’ And then we added the animation of the condom going all the way over me and my wheelchair — that really cracked me up.

What do you want audiences to take away from the film?

SH: My goal for the film is that people won’t talk down to disabled people. I want everyone to know that disabled people demand respect and rights. And I want other young adults with disabilities to have the same opportunities that I’ve had for health care, inclusive education, college, assistive technology, jobs, making friends, advocacy, and independent living. I hope parents who will watch this film will see that they should include their kids in everything, like my family has done. And I hope schools and colleges who watch this film will commit to include disabled students alongside their non-disabled peers. All of my schools have been inclusive and that made a big impact on my education, and led to my life now as a filmmaker. Our film will let people learn from disability role models like Judy Heumann and Bob Williams about how to live a full life with a disability as they transition to adulthood. This film will help people understand how to talk to me and other people with communication challenges. Be patient and do not talk down to me. Ask me how I best communicate. Slow down the pace of the conversation to create more space for me to contribute. If you don’t understand me, ask me to repeat what I said. If I’m typing on my device, don’t start another conversation — please wait for me to finish.

Young people with disabilities who have seen the film so far have told me that they have the same questions as I do about dating, sex, moving out of their own family’s home, how to respond when people talk down to them, work, and college. That means a lot to me.

Would you want to talk about how important community has been in making the film?

DH: I think film is the most team-oriented creative medium because you have to work with so many talented people to pull it off. We did build a community, you know, as I said, a majority disabled community of creative people to do the film. All of our musicians and people who did the score are all disabled, the animators are disabled, social media manager, our co-producer, our executive producer. So that was really important to us because if Sam was going to tell his story about his own perspective on living as a disabled man, we wanted the whole team to understand that perspective and many of them to have lived it. That was a big part of building community right there but I also think, Samuel, would you say that building community among your mentors, the people like Maysoon and Keith and others, was that also how you would see community-building being important here?

SH: Yeah.

DH: Yeah. So I think also building this community of mentors that Samuel could continue to learn from … .

What are you up to now, Samuel?

SH: I continue to work part time at the Westchester Institute for Human Development doing film work and presentations. The past few years, I’ve been in college at NHTI, the local community college in Concord, New Hampshire, working toward my liberal arts associate’s degree. I have been taking one class a semester and have a 3.0 GPA. So far I have taken Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, Psychology, Contemporary Ethical issues, U.S. History, Social Media Strategy, Mindful Communications, Western Civilization, Geology, Statistics, and Environment and Society. I also joined the student senate club at school. I’m taking this semester off for the film launch, and then I’m planning to attend Southern New Hampshire University, a four-year college. I also had a job last summer at a music venue in New Hampshire called Meadowbrook, scanning tickets. I got to see a bunch of free shows! I’m planning to volunteer at a local performing arts center this fall and winter. Through my film work and the job and volunteer work, I am hoping to make more friends and maybe find a girlfriend. —Zachary Lewis

The Ride Ahead
Concord premiere Monday, Dec. 2, at 6 p.m. at Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., ccanh.com
Tickets $22.25 plus small fee
Screenings Tuesday, Dec. 3, to Thursday, Dec. 12, at Red River Theatres, 11 S. Main St., Concord, redrivertheatres.org; typical screening times are 1:30, 4:30 and 6:30 p.m.

Featured image: Dan and Samuel Habib.. Courtesy photo.

Author & Historian

J. Dennis Robinson is a columnist, lecturer and public historian raised in the Granite State. He has written books and articles on local history and culture, including such topics as Jesse James, the Strawbery Banke Museum, Privateer Lynx, archaeology at the Isles of Shoals, the 1873 Smuttynose Island ax murders, the untold story of Portsmouth’s founding family, and much more. His books, articles and events can be found by visiting jdennisrobinson.com.

Explain your job and what it entails.

I write about history, focused mostly on the seacoast New Hampshire region. It’s not a lucrative career choice, but after a couple thousand published articles and 20 books, I feel I’ve finally scratched the surface.

How long have you had this job?

Been at it full-time for almost 30 years. Before that, I was a freelance writer and writing teacher.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I live in Portsmouth, the hub of New Hampshire history until the American Revolution. As the state’s only seaport, there are countless tales to tell, myths to debunk, historic houses to explore, and people to profile.

What kind of education or training did you need?

The only way to become a writer is to read a lot and write a lot more. The tricky part is to keep getting better and figure out how to get paid. I was inspired by my school teachers in Bedford, went to West High in Manchester, and got a degree in English Lit at UNH. I’ve had newspaper columns since I was in junior high.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

Except for the bell-bottom jeans, my attire is the same as when The Beatles broke up. I work from home and only come out when delivering a history talk …Then I put on my good shoes. I had a sports coat and a tie but misplaced them back in the 20th century.

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

Most challenging is paying my mortgage. I deal with that by working seven days a week. Second most challenging is convincing book readers that, if they like an author, they should spread the word, buy more books, and post reviews online. It’s how we keep going.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

Readers should know that the publishing business has turned upside down in recent years. More and more authors are publishing their own books using digital print-on-demand (POD) technology. Instead of earning 2 percent of the cover price of a book from a traditional publisher, the ‘indie’ author might earn as much as 50 percent of the cover price, even more with an ebook. Of course, we also have to design, edit, proof, and market our own books. It’s a game-changer, but a ton of work.

—Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: The Autobiography of Mark Twain
Favorite movie: The Day the Earth Stood Still
Favorite music: British Invasion
Favorite food: Chicken Tikka Masala
Favorite thing about NH: I can see the Piscataqua River from my kitchen window.

Featured photo: J. Dennis Robinson.

A look at the history of ski season in the Granite State

Professor Emeritus of History at Plymouth State University John Allen was awarded the International Skiing History Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. He serves as historian for the New England Ski Museum in Franconia and is the author of several books on the topic, including From Skisport to Skiing: One Hundred Years of an American Sport and The Culture and Sport of Skiing from Antiquity to World War II. He has been a consultant for films on skiing, and will be giving his presentation New Hampshire on Skis on Thursday, Nov. 21, at 6 p.m. at the Lane Memorial Library (2 Academy Avenue, Hampton). Visit newenglandskimuseum.org.

How did skiing start, and how did skiing start in New Hampshire?

Always very difficult to pin down because usually you find that when you find somebody who’s done something first, a year or so later you discover that they weren’t the first. But generally speaking, in the late 19th century there were odd people on skis in various places in New Hampshire. For example, in the New Hampshire Historical Society, there are some papers from a fellow who was a boy at school who made skis. I can’t remember the date exactly, but let’s say it’s in the 1870s, something like that. He went to the dentist on skis and he went to school on skis, and so on and so forth. And there were sort of odd people like that around, but there was nothing organized at all.

The skis themselves, like the equipment, have they evolved or changed much?

Oh, terrifically. For thousands of years wood was the ski of choice, was the [material] of choice. Then there were a variety of woods that were used. Ash was one of the only ones. Pine was another one. It certainly depends on what woods were around. And hickory only came into use … really late in the 19th century. That lasted pretty much as the wood of choice up through until the invention of metal skis. And metal skis have a long history too. You always think of Howard Head in the 1950s and ’60s experimenting with his cheetah skis, or what were called cheetah skis because they were easy to ski on, metal skis, and then it’s gone on to various other modes of using metal and so on, largely because they don’t break, whereas the others always do.

When did skiing become more of a sport?

Right, the great change between skiing for, as it were, some sort of utilitarian use … came when a student at Dartmouth by the name of Fred Harris started basically the Dartmouth Outing Club, [and] other colleges became involved. This was started in 1910, 1911, and then almost immediately, as I say, other colleges became involved. Middlebury, for example, UNH, UVM, Harvard, Yale, and then … up at McGill, who also were early skiers, and the Harvard and the McGill people used to come down to Hanover every once in a while for sporting skiing. Fred Harris was interested in getting the Dartmouth students, he graduated in 1911, but he was interested in skiing as a kind of, what shall we say, a healthy antidote to industrialization, urbanization, students sitting on their behinds on radiators and so on. …

Is there any interesting skiing history tidbit or facts you’d like to mention, something I haven’t asked you about?

These days when you go onto a ski slope, you will always see people who are skiing with two poles. … That was not normal a hundred years ago … a Dartmouth student was actually given two poles as a present, he tried them out at nighttime so that he wouldn’t be laughed at. One pole was the way to ski, that was the way Norwegians skied, and what Norwegians did and said and wrote about skiing was the sort of the word. … from about 1910, certainly from 1920 on, you get two poles being in use. Although I have seen pictures of people using one pole as late as 1931, but they were in Maine, they weren’t in action.

—Zachary Lewis

New Hampshire on Skis
Thursday, Nov. 21, 6 p.m.
Lane Memorial Library, 2 Academy Avenue, Hampton
nhhumanities.org

Featured image: John Allen. Courtesy photo.

Mosaic Art Collective holds a show focused on mini

Founder and Volunteer Executive Director of Mosaic Art Collective (66 Hanover St., Suite 201, Manchester) Liz Pieroni spoke to the Hippo about their “Small Wonders: Miniature Art Show,” which runs until Sunday, Dec. 22, and contains lots of nifty tiny gifts for the upcoming holidays, and how an exhibit comes together. Visit mosaicartcollective.com.

How do you and Mosaic come up with a theme for an exhibit?

At the beginning it was just really myself. Now we have a board of directors that we brainstorm ideas with. I think this year we’re going to cut back a little bit in 2025 and do a show pretty much every other month now. Just needing a little bit of a breather in between getting everything out there and making sure we’re advertising properly. But we come up with a big list of ideas and then from there narrow those down and we think about what we haven’t done in a while, what ideas are kind of trending. Sometimes it’s just an open concept and really open to any kind of medium or theme.

What is the ‘Small Wonders’ exhibit?

It’s an art exhibit that is taking to mind holiday gift buying, so keeping the prices on the lower side, small art for small budgets kind of a thing. We did this last year and the year before and both shows were pretty high-selling shows. I think the smaller size, most people don’t have huge walls to show art or showcase art, but also because the majority of our budgets are pretty pretty tight right now and we’re doing what we can to still get our artwork out there and be able to give gifts of art.

What’s considered miniature for the exhibit?

So for this show, everything is 12 by 12 [inches] or smaller. I think there’s like a 3 by 5. It’s pretty tiny. But for the most part things are around like 6 by 8-ish. It’s not super miniature, but small enough that you can find a little nook in your house to showcase. We do have a couple of sculptures. One of them is a bird made out of recycled materials that you could hang on a tree. So a little ornament. And then we also have a necklace created by Hannah Cole Dahar that I think is mother of pearl and another kind of teal stone.

How do you decide what gets in the exhibit?

All the calls are open calls. Some of the calls are more juried than others. For this show, we try to be as inclusive as possible, so this one has probably a wider range of experience levels and different styles and media. For the most part, this show we’ve just brought everyone in that we could just to bring a huge range.

What made you interested in starting an art gallery?

I moved back to New Hampshire after living away for almost 15 years. Got here, there was nowhere that really was showing contemporary art, and my art is all contemporary art. I don’t do super traditional work. My goal with opening Mosaic was really to make a place that anyone could come and show their work and have a platform to be showcased and be seen.

What does the gallery space look like?

The gallery is one room. We have five art studios off the main room. Those are rented to artists. And then one other gallerist, Amy Regan, who runs a small boutique gallery out of her studio called See Saw Art on Hanover. The gallery itself is one room, we have high ceilings, big windows, lots of natural light, and a kitchen where we have our opening reception food.

—Zachary Lewis

“Small Wonders: Miniature Art Show”
Mosaic Art Collective
66 Hanover St., Suite 201, Manchester
Runs until Sunday, Dec. 22
Wednesday from 2 to 6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday
mosaicartcollective.com

Featured image: “Moths and Mountains” by Mariah Sample.