The six-minute short film Hit On picked up the Best Filmmaker prize during the 2018 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge and is now screening as an official selection at the inaugural Indy Shorts International Film Festival in Indianapolis. 

The film stars Adam E. Nelson as a disabled man dancing through his life in Venice Beach, California who finds himself getting "hit on" by a beautiful newbie to the area, played delightfully by Kate Stone. 

Of the four Easterseals Disability Film Challenge winners, Hit On is likely the one in which the film's low-budget nature and the fact that it was created over the course of a weekend has the strongest impact. It's also, perhaps, the more ambitious of the films and refreshingly shows a realistic, fun and even sexy side disability that is seldom portrayed on the big screen. 

Director Day Daniels co-penned the script with Nelson and the two work nicely together in creating a film that may challenge perceptions just a bit about what it means to have a disability, date and just plain live day to day. 

As is true of most of the films in the First Impressions program where Hit On is screening, there's definitely some messages bubbling just underneath the surface and hopefully you're paying attention to them. 

The film's ensemble cast is uniformly strong, especially Nelson himself who projects a charismatic screen presence and instant likability. 

The film is screening twice during Indy Shorts:

• Friday, July 27th at 2pm inside The Toby at Newfields
• Sunday, July 29th at 12pm also inside The Toby

For more information on Indy Shorts, visit the Indy Shorts website. 

© Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic