Freeman ’14 Examines Human Worth in New Documentary

With his new documentary, True Value, Alexander Freeman ’14 wants the audience to learn of the employment struggles faced by people with disabilities.

Narrated by Oscar winning actor Chris Cooper, True Value delves into the lives of several people’s experiences looking for meaningful employment, including Freeman himself, a filmmaker with cerebral palsy.

“I have been trying for years to get a job, and a lot of times what I come against is I start making phone calls. Then I do a phone call or a Zoom and a lot of what happens is they hear my actual voice and decide, ‘No, we don’t want to hire you,’” Freeman explained. “They start thinking about all the things that I can’t do, rather than the things I can do. There are a lot of challenges I have run into, and a lot of rejections.”

Among others, actor CJ Jones, whose credits include Baby Driver and TV’s The Lincoln Lawyer, and public speaker Ola Ojewumi, are also included in the documentary.

The idea for the film first came to Freeman in 2017, and he continued to think about it as he worked on other projects, all the time thinking about making True Value.

“The more I thought about the problem, the more I thought about what is the real value of a person?” said Freeman. “I’m not just talking about employment – what is our worth as a person on earth and who gets to decide that value? And the more I thought…I really wanted to find out about the struggles of other people with disabilities.”

While Freeman struggles are a harsh reality, he hasn’t let it stop him. He is the owner of Outcast Productions, which has produced his films, including My Own Normal, a documentary about him telling his parents that his girlfriend is pregnant. He is also the founder of FilmAble, a Facebook community of disabled entertainment professionals who are available to work.

One of Freeman’s directing decisions was to use AI technology to give himself a British voice to narrate the movie along with Cooper.

“The voice I hear in my head actually sounds a lot more like the AI voice,” said Freeman. “I want people to hear that voice so they can understand more of what I’m saying than if I used my real voice.”

Freeman met Cooper almost a decade ago at an event, and Freeman believes that he reminds Cooper of his own son, who had cerebral palsy, and passed away in 2005.

“When I had the idea about what the documentary would be, I went to Chris and asked him if he’d like to do the [narration], and he said, ‘Absolutely, I love the idea. I would love to be involved.’ That was amazing,” said Freeman.

The documentary can be seen on Kinema, and Freeman said he’s looking for more opportunities to do screenings and Q&As.