Newsday: LIer didn’t win Oscar, but still had glorious night
Learn about the live-action Oscar-nominated short film "Feeling Through" and its positive representation and impact on the DeafBlind community.
By Daniel Bubbeo, Newsday | April 29, 2021
Original article on Newsday’s website
Sue Ruzenski might not have taken home an Oscar for Long Island Sunday night as a producer of the live-action short film nominee “Feeling Through,” but she still feels like a winner.
“It was absolutely amazing to have attended the Academy Awards. We were honored to be present there and see so many people be acknowledged for their hard work and accomplishments,” said Ruzenski, CEO of Helen Keller Services in Sands Point, in a statement.
As a producer, Ruzenski was involved in seeing that the film, which deals with the encounter one night between a homeless Black teen and a DeafBind white man, presented an accurate portrayal of the DeafBlind community.
At Sunday’s Oscars she was joined by cast member Robert Tarango of Selden, the first DeafBlind actor to star in a film. Tarango, who was working in the cafeteria at Helen Keller Services when the film was shot in 2018, is only the second DeafBlind person to attend the Oscars (the first was Helen Keller in 1955 when she won an Oscar for a documentary on her life).
Ultimately, “Feeling Through” lost the Oscar to “Two Distant Strangers,” a sci-fi short about a Black man who gets stuck in a time loop and has to relive a deadly run-in with a cop. For Ruzenski, the real victory was the chance for Hollywood to see that there are no limits to what DeafBlind people can do.
“This is just the beginning of what might be possible,” she said, “and we anticipate the DeafBlind community will bring more talent to the film industry in the future.”
