A young woman in love is pregnant and must decide if she will have the baby. An octogenarian couple shares their love story through photos and home movies dating back to the early 1960s. A community comes together to support a young boy whose family decides to give him an experimental operation. A married woman unabashedly expresses her desire to be with another man. These stories make up the films in the Love Against the Odds series at this year’s Mead. What links these six films besides the theme of love? The main characters are blind, deaf, or autistic; another suffers from multiple sclerosis and another is paraplegic. Blind Loves acquaints us with three blind couples in love and one blind teenager who wants to be. Edie and Thea: A Very Long Engagement portrays the long-term relationship between two lesbians, one of whom suffers from MS. How I Am draws out the adolescent Patrick, whose autism isolates him. In War + Love in Kabul, a young man wounded in the war on Afghanistan is kept from his childhood sweetheart. Whatever their disability, it in no way completely defines them. They are articulate and insightful and generously open up a window onto their lives.

This series is co-presented by: Center for Media, Culture and History, NYU • Council for the Study of Disability, NYU • disTHIS! Film Series