• Season 10

On Loneliness

Michael Joseph McDonald and L'Arche Greater Washington, D.C.

A poetic short film exploring how people with and without intellectual disabilities create belonging in a world marked by isolation.
  • Runtime: 6:48

Why we chose this film.

This film strikes an effective balance between educational and emotional storytelling, using diverse personal narratives to illuminate pathways from loneliness to connection. By uplifting the voices of people navigating disabilities, the film emphasizes “friendship across difference” as a meaningful way to address the loneliness crisis.

Filmmaker

Inspiration

We were watching the world enter into a conversation about the impact of loneliness, and we realized we had an important voice to contribute as a community of people with and without disabilities. People with disabilities experience loneliness so acutely, and at the same time, friendships across difference offer a meaningful way out of our systemic loneliness.

Meet the Filmmaker

Michael Joseph McDonald

Michael Joseph McDonald

Filmmaker

Michael Joseph McDonald

Filmmaker

Michael Joseph McDonald is a director, producer, and writer. He is best known for the animation Freebird (2021) which Variety chose as a “Top 5 Contender” on their 94th Oscar Prediction list, the documentary 6,000 Waiting (2021), and the documentary series As I Am (2015-2018). Before filmmaking, he worked as a ghostwriter, publishing four nonfiction books and receiving an Academy of American Poets Prize. He’s a big fan of triptychs, overlapping story structures, and Sri Lankan buffalo curd.

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