Justin Edgar

Filmmaker

Justin is an award-winning writer, director and producer who fights against the false assumption that disability is a niche topic.

As a teenager Justin was diagnosed as hard of hearing. Already in love with film, he often bunked school to go to the cinema. He gained a first class degree in Film and began writing and directing Doctors for BBC1. At 26 he became the youngest ever director of a major UK feature film: Large was produced by Film Four and topped the UK video charts.

In 2004 Justin set up 104 Films, a training and production company specialising in disability and film. It creates authentic portrayals of disability on screen while training talented new disabled filmmakers and actors. 

Justin says: “When I was younger, I wish I knew that I was disabled. When most people think of disability they think of either cultural deafness, mobility or visual impairment, yet the vast majority of disabled people have a non-visible disability. To me the able-bodied’s focus on visible disabilities medicalises disability and that is very damaging to the notion of the social model and can marginalise the experience of people like me”.

A BIFA and BAFTA jury member, he has helped create reasonable adjustment policy changes working with the BBC and British Film Institute. He directed the 2008 improvised comedy Special People about able-bodied misconceptions, which won an RTS award plus audience awards at film festivals in Berlin and Moscow. Justin’s online campaign #MakeFilmEqual resulted in his documentary about disability representation The Social Model, which was released this year to resounding acclaim.

His latest film The Marker, starring John Hannah and Cathy Tyson, has been acquired by Netflix. He is currently writing a book about New Disability Film and planning an exhibition on the disability rights movement due to open next year.