Through a wide-angle lens, their voices emerge. A paralyzed matchmaker with muscular dystrophy arranges romantic liaisons. A teenage boy with autism negotiates the New York subway system—we see it through his eyes. A young man travels the world with 20 euros and a wheelchair. These are just a few of the stories told by, about, and for people with disabilities through the ReelAbilities Film Festival, now in its seventh year.

"We avoid the films that try to make you cry or pluck at your heartstrings," says Isaac Zablocki, co-founder and co-director of the festival. "ReelAbilities specifically takes an edgier approach to disabilities and chooses films that are daring, have a sense of humor about disability, and show people with disability not as cliches but as people with personalities."

Zablocki got the idea for ReelAbilities during his tenure as director of film programs at the Jewish Community Center in New York City. Once or twice a year he would watch a "wonderful film" relating to disability and put it on the calendar. He noticed that these movies tended to get no additional exposure, with few available venues. So he set out to create a vehicle to screen these movies and to make a difference in people's lives.

"Our goal is to reach beyond the converted, beyond the disability community to the mainstream community, and bridge that gap," Zablocki says. All signs point to that happening. In six years, the festival has expanded from a few sites in Manhattan to 32 venues around New York City and hundreds of screenings in 15 cities around the country, including Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco.

The key to the festival's success is that movies are chosen based on the quality of the filmmaking, the stories, and their appeal to people with or without disabilities, Zablocki says. "People with disabilities are often portrayed to the public as either saints or as creatures that have nothing to do with our reality. Last year we showed three feature films on the topic of disability and sexuality. It's kind of nice to show people with disabilities as people who experience romances and tragedies and comedies just like everyone else."

More than offering a place to show entertaining movies, the film festival has a mission, Zablocki explains. "We actually have conversations following the films, and all of this in order to drive social change. It's about bridging gaps and exposing the community to visions of disability that are often hidden."

Every screening includes a talk by the director or star of the movie, a discussion with a panel of experts, or a speaker with a particular disability and a story to share. The idea is to get people talking about the movie and what can be done to change perceptions of disability and the reality for people with disabilities.

Past speakers, for example, have included a surfer who lost one arm to a shark attack; she got back on the board 30 days later and is now a professional surfer. Others include the first fashion model in a wheelchair to "walk" the runway at New York Fashion Week and a priest who sings opera, wants to be on Broadway, and is the chairman of the Xavier Society for the Blind.

Recently, the festival branched out to include other visual and performing arts, with photography and art exhibitions as well as dance, theatre, music, and literary events that complement and expand upon the themes in the movies. Every year the venues are packed, and the audiences, comprising people with and without connections to the disability community, continue to grow.

"People often shy away from people with disabilities [they see] on the streets and in our communities every day," says Zablocki. "Some people don't know how to engage, some people don't want to engage. But people want to go out for a movie night. They are going to see these movies and be changed by them and this is going to have an impact. I believe movies are a great tool for social change."

The festival has also caught the attention of film distribution companies. "Invitation to Dance," a documentary about the activist Simi Linton, who campaigns for people with disabilities, premiered at last year's festival and has since been picked up by a large distribution company; the film is slated for wider release in theaters. (Learn more about the film at Kino Lorber Theatrical.) "Do You Believe in Love?," the story of a paralyzed matchmaker, has won numerous awards in festivals around the world. (Visit Heymann Brothers Films to find out more about this production.)

"Fixed," a new film at the New York film festival, questions "the science/fiction of human enhancement." Does a man with no legs truly have a "disability" when he can run faster than most people in the world? What does it mean to be "normal" in a world where increasing numbers of people turn to "smart drugs" to get ahead each day? (Find out more about Fixed.)

ReelAbilities now receives hundreds of movie submissions every year and is now choosing movies for next year's film festival. The New York festival will take place March 12–18, 2015.

To learn more about next year's schedule or to become involved in creating your own local film festival under the ReelAbilities umbrella, visit the ReelAbilities website.