What Was It Like?

Thomas Howell gets more than he bargained for at his interview with a prestigious law firm; an insult about his tie, a rendition of Harry Potter and the chance to change the lives of father and son.

When her mother suddenly dies, Sonja is thrown into tumult. Dealing with early-twenties existential angst and a sense of responsibility for her teenage younger sister Emma, she has a lot on her plate. Suddenly under the care of her controlling grandma and—as a young woman living with Down syndrome—constantly faced with a society that judges what she’s capable of, Sonja is desperate to be herself and take charge of her own life. When a chance encounter with the charismatic Hakim leads her to a krump class, Sonja discovers a life-changing outlet for expression.

Devised by twelve people living with an intellectual disability over a period of 10 months, Heartbreak and Beauty is an experimental short film that combines music, visual metaphor, dance and original poetry to express how we are all connected through our shared human experiences of love and loss.

Hear from six Australians challenging the intersecting barriers of disability and ethnicity.