As You Choose

Through an intimate portrait of the people who run a unique nonprofit emergency disability service in Berkeley, and members of the disability community fighting for adequate care to live independently, As You Choose is a perceptive exploration of how systemic underinvestment limits societal equality.

Tucked in a nondescript South Berkeley office building is the only emergency disability service nonprofit in the country. Next door, a group of neighbors sit in folding chairs on the sidewalk and drink beers, bumping loud music. Most people would be heading home after work, but the Executive Director of EDI, Bruce Curtis, is still at his desk. His small team of employees, with and without disabilities, operates 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, to answer the call of a disabled person or an elderly person with an emergency.

EDI doesn’t deal with life threatening emergencies like heart attacks— they respond to the type of emergency someone in a wheelchair might experience: they’ve fallen out of their wheelchair and can’t get back in it; their caregiver is sick and they’re stuck in bed; their motorized wheelchair breaks down in the grocery store, and they’re suddenly and unexpectedly stranded.

These are issues that happen in Oakland just as much as Berkeley, but at the Berkeley border, most of the EDI services stop. Funded by a property tax measure passed by Berkeley residents, EDI only has the funding to offer their unique services to Berkeley, namely emergency caregiving services.

Bruce Curtis hopes to change that. He’s in talks with Oakland about a partnership, but providing on-call caregivers is expensive and without guaranteed funding, Bruce knows it will not work. How will he expand EDI’s services to neighboring cities without undermining the organization?

Now, facing an administration that's openly hostile to disability rights, Bruce works to provide the help he can in an "ocean of need," while confronting the reality of aging and increased mobility challenges in his personal life.

Director/Producer - Elly Schmidt-Hopper

Producer: Jean Zamora

AP: Cecil Egbele

DP: Joe Barnett

Editor: Jenna Bush

Director's website: https://linktr.ee/elicia.sh

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