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'Jeremy The Dud': The Aussie Short Film Flipping The Script On Living With Disability

The film imagines a world where everyone has a disability, and those that don't are duds.
Robot Army

A new short film imagines a world where everyone has a disability, and the rare few who don't are treated with the same condescension and prejudice as those with disabilities are treated every day.

Not only does the film, 'Jeremy the Dud', flip prejudices on their heads but also features only one main cast member without a real-life disability. Nick Boshier, better known as one half of the Bondi Hipsters, plays Jeremy a man born "without specialty" which is more casually referred to as "a dud".

Forced to wear a large label displaying his lacking specialty, on his birthday Jeremy is old enough to move out of assisted living and in with his Aunt and her two kids. While Jeremy just wants to get a job and maybe find a place of his own, he even tells his Aunt he doesn't want to be a burden, but everyone around him still seems to see him as just that.

'Jeremy the Dud' was created by Robot Army Productions in partnership with genU, a not-for-profit organisation that helps people with disability to set new limits on their lives, to see aging and disability as challenges, rather than disadvantages.

Out of the film's cast, 22 with disability are all genU participants, with only two actors appearing without a disability, Boshier and Jackson O'Doherty who plays another dud. According to the film's release, the production would have to start and stop to make sure only disabled people were in frame.

While 'Jeremy the Dud' takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to subverting the typical stigma and judgement that people with disability may face on a daily basis, at its core has a beautifully heartfelt message.

You can watch the full short film above or check out more about the project on the 'Jeremy the Dud' Facebook page.

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