British filmmaker Ella Glendining’s debut documentary feature is like nothing you’ve seen before. Raised in Norfolk, Glendining has an extremely rare disability; she was born without hip joints and has extremely short femurs. Having already made films with support of the BFI, she set out to make a work that explored whether there were others out there with a similar condition. In her eyes, she wanted to create something brimming with positivity. The result: Is There Anybody Out There? 

‘I’ve never seen a first-person documentary where I feel that the disabled protagonist has been accurately portrayed,’ she says. ‘We’re fighting against so many negative stereotypes. And it’s really, really hard to be loud and proud as a disabled person. So often, first-person documentaries from a disabled perspective are very focused on the medical details of their condition. And I wanted to make a film that was very much a celebration, and about the soul of disability.’

While the film suggests that many view disability ‘as a fate worse than death’, Glendining is desperate to combat that prejudice. ‘That’s my main ambition with the film, to humanise disabled people and just present another angle on disability.’ Still, there are some shocking moments, like when Glendining reveals how many jobs she’s been overlooked for, including night-shift work at a supermarket chain. 

After joining a Facebook group, she also began to investigate others with similar conditions. ‘At one point, I did get very fixated on finding someone exactly like me,’ she says. ‘But I think it was incredibly freeing to discover that there is no one exactly like me. It’s really just a range of conditions.’ In America, Glendining meets several folk with similar disabilities, including a hair and make-up artist named Priscilla Miranda. ‘It was amazing, just meeting someone with that shared experience of what it’s like to exist in the world with a body like mine. I’ve never experienced that before.’

Five years in the making, it’s been an epic odyssey for Glendining. ‘I have to admit, I always had big ambitions,’ she explains. ‘I knew that I wanted it to be big, and a powerful journey film . . . 
but I didn’t know how personal it was going to be!’ In 2018, when she was 26, she fell pregnant with her son River. It wasn’t planned, but it put her own story front and centre in the film. If that wasn’t enough, the covid pandemic curtailed a planned trip to India, stretching out the making of her movie even further. But on reflection, she was glad of these events. ‘I think it made the film richer.’

With the documentary getting its world premiere at Sundance, Glendining is delighted by the response to it so far. ‘I’m very, very excited that I’m getting recognition as an artist,’ she admits. Already, she’s scripting her first feature for the BFI, called Curiosities Of Fools, a historical drama about a court dwarf in the 1600s. ‘It’s about his journey to overcoming internalised ableism and finding community amongst the court fools of the palace.’ So will she alternate between docs and features in the future? ‘I love documentary,’ she adds. ‘But I think I love fiction more.’ 

Is There Anybody Out There?, Vue, 19 August, 6.30pm; 20 August, 11.10am.