Revisit the complex life and legacy of the author, advocate and human rights pioneer.
American Masters “Becoming Helen Keller” airs Saturday, July 19 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-WORLD and streaming live on the WXXI app.
This documentary rediscovers the complex life and legacy of author and activist Helen Keller (1880-1968), who was deaf and blind since childhood, exploring how she used her celebrity and wit to advocate for social justice, particularly for women, workers, people with disabilities and people living in poverty.
It tells Keller’s story through rarely seen photographs, archival film clips and interviews with historians, scholars and disability rights advocates. Narrated by author, psychotherapist and disability rights advocate Rebecca Alexander, the film features on-camera performances from Tony- and Emmy Award-winning actor Cherry Jones reading Keller’s writings. Actor and dancer Alexandria Wailes provides American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation of Keller’s words with all other ASL interpretation by writer and rapper Warren “WAWA” Snipe. The program also features audio description by National Captioning Institute and closed captioning by VITAC.
This program is presented by Move to IncludeTM, an award-winning national initiative to promote disability inclusion, representation, and accessibility in public media.