Daisy Friedman is a writer, director, and poet based in New York City whose work is informed by the fact that she’s a multi-organ transplant recipient. Her latest short film, “Unholy,” is about a woman with a gastrointestinal disorder that requires a feeding tube and the obstacles she navigates at her family’s Passover Seder. Filmed in 2024, “Unholy” premiered at Sundance 2025 and was screened at South By Southwest 2025.
Friedman’s 2023 short film, “As You Are,” stars Bri Scalesse and Estefania Giraldo as an interabled couple who heal their complicated relationships with their bodies when they spend the night together for the first time. The acclaimed film won the U.S. Narrative Short Grand Jury Prize and earned her the NewFest35 Emerging Filmmaker Award. “As You Are” also received a Special Mention at Outfest 2023. It was screened at festivals like Frameline, Inside Out, Outfest, the Chicago International Film Festival, and The National Film Festival For Talented Youth.
“When we see people who look like us in the world,” Friedman told Able News, “it pushes us to want to see ourselves on screen and make that happen for ourselves.” She attributes the power of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to her creative career. “Learning about the ADA and the disabled activists who fought for it helped me to identify as disabled. Without their work, I never would have been confident enough in my identity as a disabled person to create work about disability. I owe everything to the people like Nadina LaSpina and Judy Heumann who came before me.”
Currently, Friedman is a Winter/Spring ‘25 Guest Resident at the Woodward Residency in Queens, where she’s working on projects while sharing space with a small community of artists. In addition to her filmmaking, she has written for prestigious outlets like Deadline, IndieWire, Variety, and Out Magazine. She is also the 2020 recipient of the National Scholastic Gold Medal and American Voices Award and a graduate of Barnard College.
Reflecting on the significance of the milestone 35th anniversary of the ADA’s passage, Friedman observed: “Since our rights have been solidified in the law (G-d willing it stays that way), we’ve now been able to dream bigger for ourselves. Not just envision how we get around in our cities, or manage to get jobs, but to imagine the kinds of love and families we want one day. It’s a reminder of all that we have gained and all that we still have to fight for.”
Read all 35 stories of the New York-based leaders profiled in our ADA 35 edition.