n the Wake TV Producers Shayna and Julia discuss Rains Over Babel, exploring one of the film's most powerful undercurrents: the experience of grieving disability, feeling unholy in a world that demands perfection, and navigating societal exclusion in spaces that weren't built for you.
Beyond the Fantasy—A Story of Exclusion: While Rains Over Babel dazzles with its tropical Colombian steampunk aesthetic and queer joy, Shayna and Julia dig deeper into the film's exploration of bodies and identities deemed "unworthy" by society. In a purgatory where souls gamble with Death, the film asks: Who gets to be seen as whole? Who is cast out, labeled broken, or made to feel unholy simply for existing? For disabled characters navigating a world—both literal and metaphorical—that excludes them, the film becomes a meditation on grief, resilience, and the fight to reclaim dignity.
Why This Matters: Disability is often erased from mainstream narratives or reduced to inspiration porn. Rains Over Babel refuses both tropes, instead centering the complex emotional reality of living in a body society deems "less than." Shayna and Julia's conversation highlights why representation matters—not just visibility, but stories that honor the grief, rage, and joy of disabled experiences without sanitizing them for abled comfort.
Watch the full conversation as Shayna and Julia unpack the intersections of disability, queerness, and societal exclusion in Rains Over Babel, and why Sundance films like this are essential for expanding what stories get told.
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