About The Project
Dan Habib's documentary film Including Samuel examines the educational and social inclusion of youth with disabilities. The film is built on the efforts of Habib and his family to include Samuel, 7, in all facets of school and community. Including Samuel also features four other families with varied inclusion experiences, plus interviews with dozens of teachers, young people, parents and disability rights experts.
A trailer of the film is now available. In fall 2007, Including Samuel will be released as a broadcast-quality film, a teaching guide and a website. The target audience will be the general public, students at the middle and high school levels, general and special educators, and college students and teachers.
Including Samuel is being edited by Rikk Desgres of Pinehurst Pictures and Sound.
About Dan Habib
Photo: Franz Nicolay
Dan Habib is the director, producer and cinematographer of the new documentary, Including Samuel. The film won the 2007 Positive Images in Media award from TASH, an international group committed to the full inclusion of people with disabilities. The film was named “Best Documentary” at the 2007 Somewhat North of Boston Film Festival, and has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, and in the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. Exceptional Parent magazine said “Including Samuel is a must see film.”
Habib is Filmmaker-in-Residence at the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire. Until joining UNH in April of 2008, Habib was the photography editor of the Concord Monitor since 1995. In 2006 and 2008 he was named the national Photography Editor of the Year for papers under 100,000 circulation. He was a staff photographer with the Monitor from 1988–1992.
Between his stints at the Monitor, Habib freelanced and created a multi-media documentary project titled “Teen Sexuality in a Culture of Confusion.” The project was widely disseminated in video, print and website formats (DanHabib.com). His freelance work has appeared in numerous publications, including Time, Newsweek, Yankee, Life, Boston Magazine, Mother Jones and the New York Times.
Habib has been named New Hampshire Photographer of the Year six times. He has been a judge of Pictures of the Year and White House News Photographer’s Association. He was one of 12 photojournalists from around the world to participate in the 1995 World Press Photo Masterclass in Amsterdam.
Habib and his wife, Betsy, live in Concord, New Hampshire, with their sons Isaiah, 11, and Samuel, 8.
Supporters
Including Samuel has received major support from the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability, Granite State Independent Living, the New Hampshire Developmental Disabilities Council, the Endowment for Health, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Easter Seals New Hampshire.
Additional support has come from the New Hampshire Disabilities Rights Center, the New Hampshire Trial Lawyers Association and the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire.