My Proudest Moment (2026), film still

My Proudest Moment

2026 • Open Entrant Documentaries
Filmmaker: Imbi Mannik

About this Short Film

#Adult #Art #Cognitive Processing Disability #Dyslexia #Medical Disability #shunt

This independent micro-short documentary captures interviews with two trailblazers changing the narrative discourse in the area of disability in Australia, Tim Cahalan and Joanne Hatchard, through the sharing of their ‘proudest moment’. Tim, born with Crouzon syndrome and diagnosed with hydrocephalus at 3 years old requiring a shunt, brought about awareness in 2019 of being a victim to the Government’s robodebt scheme, putting a ‘face to the name’. Joanne, an award-winning neurodivergent therapist with lived experience, parent and founder of Better Being Me, champions the power of seeing neurodivergence as a meaningful, legitimate way of being. During sharing their ‘proudest moment’, an artist drew their portrait capturing a moment in time as their authentic selves.

Film Details

Country: Australia
State: South Australia
Category: Open Entrant Documentaries
Genre: interview
Festival Year: 2026
Filmmaker: Imbi Mannik

Film Transcript

My name is Tim Carlin and I was born with Cruzon syndrome, which then led to me being diagnosed with hydro careless. They had to put a shunt in so it could regulate the flow of fluid in my brain, and all throughout my childhood and adolescent youth they had to do numerous revisions, so basically cut me open and fix the shunts. A lot of the positive aspects is that I learned empathy and then it motivated me to engage in activism to try to make things better for generations of people with disabilities. They'll come after me.

Some ways I stay positive and be myself is that I like to wear a bunny onesie when I'm at home and I shop online or I go to the cinemas a fair bit and I just do what I'm interested in, whether it's reading, learning history or engaging in politics in some way. There'll be periods where things won't go so well and then there are periods where things will be going very well either in my life or in the political scene.

Hello, my name is Joan Hatch. I'm a neurodiverse family therapist. I run Better Being Me. My lived experience of disability, from a historic point of view, was that there was just a very long time of nobody recognising any of, like, difficulties. But there wasn't a concept or a name that actually was attached to it until we kind of got to year 12, where somebody decided that I wasn't actually— and that I had some thoughts and some ideas that weren't getting conveyed in my work. So they did recommend getting a dyslexic diagnosis or they recommended that I get assessment for dyslexia, and then, voila. But it's amazing to reflect on now because the supports that they brought in for me are accessible to absolutely everybody now. Having those kinds of experiences now where there's just not that barrier anymore is amazing. You can't convey those barriers that exist when nobody else talks about those barriers that exist and you don't know that they don't exist for other people. You're just assuming that you're doing it wrong.

My proudest moment is in September 2019. When I went to CRA, by chance I had a meeting with Bill Shawson and he asked if he could do a motion on public importance where to use my story about getting caught up in the robojet scandal. After question time he got up and gave a speech about me in parliament. The robo debt was a system of algorithms made by machines for sensor link. In my case, they said that I owed $3,000 for not reporting my earnings. When we look back, we found that I had always reported my earnings. I also went on the 7:30 Report to tell my story about being caught on robo debt. I think it helped 'cuz we put a face to this scam, showing that there were real people who were being persecuted by the government over this.

My proudest moment — you know that experience where you go, "Oh, that's actually something falling into place and everything feels really good." It was in the middle of a complete meltdown of my life falling apart because I had no idea what the [ __ ] I was doing in any way, shape, or form. And then it went, "You've got all of this information in your head that you've been researching for years and years. You've done your study. You went overseas. You did more study. How about you freaking use it? Why don't you take this information and put it through your lens and your understanding?" It's been life-altering. So, very proud for that. Yay.

I'm proud of me. I'm proud of my clients. I'm proud of my son who kind of tipped it all off into— really proud of the autistic community and the neurodivergent community that have started to connect, and the people that I meet and the opportunities that I've come through because of my willingness to share. And that's what makes me proud for the disability community. I just say: embrace every positive opportunity that comes your way. It'll lead to many other positive things. Really understanding that there is no choice.

Like, my laugh is massive. I can't hide it. There is no point. Just be who you are. The energy and effort that you spend in trying not to be that person is wasted. Know who you are. Know what your foundations are. Basically, be yourself. Learn to be yourself.

Filmmaker

Imbi Mannik is the filmmaker behind this entry. See every Focus on Ability entry from Imbi Mannik.

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