Wheel Blacks docuseries set to change inclusive filmmaking

Jai Waites (left) and Robyn Paterson (right), producers of Wheel Blacks: Bodies on the Line, now streaming on Neon and Sky. Source: Supplied 

The screen industry is getting a long-overdue shakeup – all thanks to Sweet Productions, a disability-led company determined to change the way disabled stories are told.  

Their debut project Wheel Blacks: Bodies on the Line, follows the New Zealand Wheelchair Rugby team and their fight towards qualifying for the Paris 2024 Paralympics.  

The three-part documentary series offers a glimpse into the future of inclusive filmmaking. 

Robyn Paterson – part of the team behind the Netflix smash hit Down For Love – and former Wheel Black Jai Waites joined forces to create the series as the producers and co-owners of Sweet Productions. 

Adopting the mantra of ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’, the pair want to ensure the disabled community takes control of telling the stories that concern them – putting disabled creators at the forefront.  

“For a lot of us, there's just a big relief around not masking our disabilities. If you need to go off and do something or take a bit of time out, you can just be open about why, as you're not having to dance around the issue. Everyone gets it,” Paterson, who has fibromyalgia, said. The condition leaves Paterson with chronic pain and fatigue.  

Robyn Paterson celebrating the release of Wheel Blacks: Bodies on the line. Source: Ashley Harding.  

Sweet Productions has also worked alongside those with muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis (MS), arthritis, lupus, scoliosis, visual impairments, mental ill health, and neurodivergent conditions.  

Waites told The D* List the industry can be “pretty ableist,” often reducing disabled peoples’ involvement to tokenistic roles. 

“We talk a lot about when able-bodied people approach disability or chronic health content, there tends to be a lot of caution, sadness, and inspiration factors,” Paterson said. 

Jai Waites, celebrating with co-workers. Source: Ashley Harding 

Waites and Paterson have found that creatively they’re automatically jumping past those common themes and into a place where differences are just accepted at the very beginning. 

This proved vital when shooting the Wheel Blacks docu-series, with an emphasis on the athletes, not their disabilities. 

“The disability is there, and no one's trying to pretend it isn't. It is very much accepted and acknowledged, but it's also not focused on and looked at in a patronizing or inspirational kind of way,” Paterson said. 

After launching in 2022, Sweet Productions had $630,000 of NZ On Air funding to bring their vision to light. 

Waites represented Aotearoa twice at the Paralympics, so starting off with a series that hit close to home “just made sense,” Paterson told Canta. 

Though not everybody who works behind the Sweet Productions screen has a disability, they’re always keeping an eye out to give less-abled people opportunities where they can. 

Growing up disabled, writer and activist Alice Mander, never saw stories on screen about herself that felt authentic. 

“Non-disabled filmmakers might have good intentions, but the lens through which they view disability is simply not the same as people with lived experience,” Mander said. 

Sweet Productions helped Mander complete her directorial debut, with Clickbait & Crutches, a web series telling stories through a disability lens. 

The 24-year-old said the project was a dream.  

Safety and support manifested in Sweet Productions’ flexibility through the pace of the project, which Mander liked to call the “speed of trust,” or “crip time.” 

In an industry often controlled by funders and deadlines, she knows this approach is rare and special.  

Her collaboration with Sweet Productions has created hope and space for aspiring disabled filmmakers like herself, reminding Mander that the stories and heroes are out there, “they just need us to shine the light on them.” 

Writer, entertainer, and host of podcast That’s so Chronic, Jess Brien, was also spotted by Sweet Productions.  

Though Paterson had shoulder tapped her through a mutual connection, fate brought Brien to the table. 

While in Scotland, she was eating at her favourite noodle spot and a fortune cookie caught her attention. It read: ‘when opportunity knocks, open the door.’ 

Naturally, she checked her inbox that evening and was ecstatic to receive an email from not only award winning producers, but a disability led company. 

Living with a chronic illness made her realise you truly have no idea what's going on in someone else's life. 

“Sometimes you wake up and wish you just had a sign where everybody would know that something's going on for you, and to just be a little bit kinder,” Brein said.  

Now after interning at Sweet Productions for the past six weeks, Brien’s passion for storytelling has only been heightened. 

“Working with Sweet Productions has reminded me just how valuable it is to share stories.”