About this Short Film
Through the eyes of her family, friends, and students, this documentary explores the life and impact of Eden, a young woman whose positivity, determination, and compassion have transformed the lives of those around her. From everyday moments to her involvement with the DG8 class at Sancta Maria College, the film celebrates the power of inclusion, belonging, and seeing ability before disability. Eden's story highlights how one person can create meaningful change inspiring people to build a community where everyone is valued, supported, and given the opportunity to thrive.
Film Details
Country:
New Zealand
Category:
School Documentaries
Genre:
Personal Story
Festival Year:
2026
Filmmaker:
Jake Price and Makee Enricoso
Film Transcript
What's your name? My name is Eden. Who do you love spending time with? Oh, I don't say hat. I think I go to juice and dip some sushi and ice cream. Nice. So, yeah. Do you do karaoke together? Yes. Do you enjoy doing karaoke with Aiden? Yes.
What's your name? Rachel. And I'm Aiden's mom. We had chosen not to have any testing before Eden's birth and so her diagnosis of Down syndrome was a complete surprise to everybody. I was rolling with some emotion even though I was overall okay with that. There was definitely lots of emotion bubbling up.
What were your fears at the time? I did spend a lot of time lying in the hospital those first sort of week or so thinking about the adult. What would life be like with a child with Down syndrome as that child grew into an adult? Were we going to be forever supporting her? Was there going to be an independent future for her?
It all rolls into laughter. There's just laughter with Eden, pretty much every day. There's some kind of crazy spontaneous thing that she does that brings laughter every day.
I jumped into getting involved supporting students with disabilities, particularly Down syndrome, from when she was a little tiny baby and got really involved with Oakland Down Syndrome Association and helped to sort of take their teacher courses up to the next level. About four years ago I started up—we call it the DJ learning list. DJ Gate is just the name of my classroom. We've grown to have 10 kids in our space. We've had a couple of school leavers along the way, which has been really an interesting journey in itself, helping young adults transition out of school and into life.
I think one of my favourite examples is attending the school ball a couple of years ago with our senior girls. One of them was profoundly autistic and really struggled with sensory overload. We arrived when nobody else was at the ball apart from a couple of teachers, and quietly settled into the evening. Then as everybody arrived and the music started she was able to cope because we had some quiet spaces and I had to get her sensory issues sorted out before it all got crazy. In the end, her parents arrived. She was on the dance floor; we couldn't get her off it and she stayed there pretty much to the very end. Her parents came and joined us and they were just, it was their delight.
I think that meant such a lot to me because I know sometimes when you're raising a child who's got a disability, it can feel really long and you struggle with small things for a really long time. When you get these moments where you're just enjoying something really normal like the school ball, it means a huge amount.
I love that in my work it's not just working with kids, but also with their entire father. In my current role, the one thing that has made me sad about the model of schooling she has is that she's really disconnected from the school around her. So in my own workplace my determination was that we would make sure that we provided what the kids need, which she gets—targeted learning at her school. But I wanted more than that for our kids. I wanted them to be active parts of our school community so they're not missing out on anything. That's a really important thing to me: that the kids are there in the community with everybody, not sort of like strange outsiders that we don't mix with, but people who are part of everything that goes on in life.
Tell me your favourite song. I hope you get your dreams down. You're going to find yourself where somehow.
Filmmaker
Jake Price and Makee Enricoso is the filmmaker behind this entry. See every Focus on Ability entry from Jake Price and Makee Enricoso.
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