Wild & Free at The Arc of High Point is a proud parter of

"Hot Wing Redemption" is an animated short about a group of superheroes, villains, and everyday people joining forces to save the day.

It's 1997 in New York City, and a well known group of superheroes walk through the doors of the recently opened Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate their latest victory with hot wings and beer. Excited by the visiting celebrities, the restaurant staff keeps the wings and beer flowing. Soon enough, we find our heroes 3 sheets to the wind. When our Villain suddenly returns for his shot at redemption, the heroes are not sober enough to fight back this time, and hilarity ensues.

As a brand new rival comes on the scene, our heroes must form unlikely alliances to defeat the new foe while simultaneously fighting off a hangover.

"We're chugging trouble...and winging justice"

Why should you support US?

Hi! We're Wild & Free; a group of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities who love to push the boundaries placed on us by society. Every day that we are together, we actively chase down goals and challenge ourselves to grow in multiple ways. One way we recently decided to do that was by creating an animated short film. Because we are a non-profit, we need your support to make our dream a reality!

Cast & Creators

From left to right: "Lawyer Man"-Darryl Thompson, "Jacob"-Isaac Gauntz, "Nicholas"-Eugene Mihai, "George"-Madison Lanik, "Big Mike"-Brian Deer, "Swift"-Natalie Haynes, "Sunflower"-Rhiannon Katz, "Paulia"-Mallory Snellen, "Gun Shop Owner"-Ethan Brown, "Celebrity Wife"-Anisha Bhattacharjee, "Kin"-Lena Clayborne, "Terri"-Sammy Jones

Other Contributors include: Victor Maccachero, Chance Barbour, Jordan Glascoe, Sam Baker, Alicia Kellum, Connor McLean

Why THIS project?

A film imagined, created, and performed by adults with disabilities is not something that happens every day. It's rare to see someone like us reflected in the movies and tv shows we watch. More often than not, we see someone without a disability, pretending to be like us, playing a character that misrepresents our community entirely. Here are some examples:

    
We have the typical white male genius with autism who graduated college unusually early and became a doctor. He saves lives and discovers how the universe works, but more importantly he talks funny and has endearing quirks that people like to see. More recently, we have Sia's depiction of a person with disabilities, played by an actress who does not have a disability whatsoever, and is actually choosing to make this face. 

This is supposed to be our representation. We want real story lines and actors who are coming from a place of real experience. We don't want you to laugh at us because we are quirky. We want you to laugh because we're funny! We want to be known and loved for all that we are instead of only recognized for all that we aren't. 

You've heard the WHY. Now here's the WHAT.

For this animated film, we are going with a fun 2D animation style. Think "Adult Swim"..The Simpsons...Family Guy. You get the idea. Since our film is a comedy set in the 90's, we felt this would be more approriate than a 3D/Disney/Pixar animation style.

We have a very unique character design that came from one of our cast members, Lena. Our characters will be based on and inspired by her original sketches.

This short film will be around 10 minutes long, and will be completely voiced by the creators themselves. Because we are neurodivergent voice actors, some of the lines may be a little hard to understand. That's okay! Because of that, and for those who are hearing impaired, we will be including captions. Hearing these types of voices is something we want to see become a more common occurence, because we believe EVERY voice is important.

So why right NOW?

The fight for inclusion has been decades in the making, and there is still a huge mountain ahead of us to climb. Every generation has the task of contributing to the fight in their own way, and right now, film is our weapon of choice. In 2021, people are finally listening to voices that have gone unheard for so long, and we are seeing real change happen! Our hope is that we too can make a difference by advocating for the disability community to be seen and heard like never before. Through the power of creativity, we believe we can accomplish great things and make big strides toward inclusion and awareness. We are thankful for those who have gone before us, and now it is OUR time to make things happen!

Why are we asking YOU?

We are looking for a community of passionate people who want to actively pursue social change through the arts. Your support means everything to us, and this film will not be possible without it! If after reading this you feel compelled to make a difference by contributing to our mission of changing the way society sees the disability community, we encourage you to take action and answer that call. Maybe you're just interested in supporting indie filmmakers, and want to see what this animated comedy turns out to be. Either way, we want YOU on our team!

This film is dedicated to

Brian Deer ("Big Mike")
1969-2021