Join Speaker Robert Rivas and Proud Stutter for an intimate work‑in‑progress film screening that centers speech diversity on screen.

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Work in Progress Film Screening with Speaker Rivas and Proud Stutter

Join California Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas and Proud Stutter founder Maya Chupkov for an intimate work-in-progress film screening that centers speech diversity on screen. The screening will be followed by a conversation with disability advocates, storytellers, and members of the filmmaking team.

About The Film

The film follows Issac Bailey, a journalist, professor, and free expression advocate from rural South Carolina. There is perhaps no better introduction to the film than Issac's own words:

"Even as a Black man who grew up in the shadow of Jim Crow in the Deep South, nothing has challenged me like my stutter. It has shaped me like nothing else."

Through Issac's story, the film explores the intersections of race, disability, family history, and belonging. It examines how inherited silence can shape generations, influencing not only how we speak, but how we see ourselves and connect with others.

Stuttering impacts more than 80 million people worldwide, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented disabilities on screen. This film invites audiences to listen differently and consider a form of communication that challenges conventional ideas of fluency, confidence, and voice. It asks us to slow down, embrace vulnerability, and reconsider whose stories are heard and valued.

The themes that guide this project center on belonging and the many ways it is shaped by exclusion. Through more than 100 conversations conducted through Proud Stutter, it lifts up how speech differences can influence whether a person is understood, trusted, included, or given space to speak. These experiences can be isolating within schools, workplaces, communities, and even families.

In Issac's life, these dynamics intersect with the legacies of racism, poverty, and incarceration in the rural South. The film uses one family's story to explore larger questions about identity, resilience, memory, and the human desire to be heard. While rooted in the experience of stuttering, the film speaks to universal questions about what it means to belong.

This special work-in-progress screening offers a unique opportunity to engage with the filmmakers and participate in a broader conversation about disability, representation, and the transformative power of storytelling.

The film is directed by Maya Chupkov, Tessa Andrade, and Christina Chin and is currently in development.