Is there anybody out there with legs like me?’ asks Ella Glendining, the writer, director and subject of this documentary from Glasgow’s Aconite imprint. Mixing family footage and her own video diaries, Glendining sets out to find someone, anyone, born with the same rare disability as her. That search is complicated when she becomes pregnant, and the birth of her son raises questions about how able-bodied people see others. ‘People aren’t born with this prejudice, it’s learned . . . being this way is not the problem,’ says Glendining, and this sincere documentary makes a strong case. 

With a soundtrack including Cake, Perfume Genius and Björk, it’s a personal journey that addresses how the ‘able-ist’, as Glendining terms them, sideline members of society for being different from them. Lowering the light switches might not solve such problems, but as Glendining’s film artfully suggests, it might be a good way to start.

Is There Anybody Out There? reviewed as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival.