The Invalid Corps

ABOUT THIS FILM:

In July 1864, Confederate General Jubal Early launches a surprise raid that takes him to the very gates of Washington DC. The city is in panic. Almost every able-bodied soldier from the Union has already been sent south for the siege of Petersburg, more than 100 miles away. The only defenders remaining are clerks, government officials, and the Invalid Corps. Made up of men injured in battle or by disease, these “hopeless cripples” must hold out for a desperate 24 hours until Union General Grant can send reinforcements. With Lincoln himself on the ramparts, they cannot afford to fail.

FILMMAKER BIO:

Day Al-Mohamed is an author, filmmaker, and disability adviser. She is a co-author of the novel “Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn”, is a regular host on Idobi Radio’s “Geek Girl Riot” with an audience of more than 80,000 listeners, and her most recent novella, “The Labyrinth’s Archivist”, was published July 2019. She is a member of Women in Film and Video, a Docs in Progress Film Fellowship alumna, and a graduate of the VONA/Voices Writing Workshop. However, she is most proud of being invited to teach a workshop on storytelling at the White House in February of 2016.

Day is a disability policy executive with more than fifteen years of experience. She presents often on the representation of disability in media, most recently at the American Bar Association, SXSW, and New York ComiCon. A proud member of Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 24-01 (5th District Southern Region), she lives in Washington DC with her wife, N.R. Brown. “The Invalid Corps” is her first documentary as a blind filmmaker.

Plays in

Doc Block: True Stories of Survival and Heroism

This selection of shorts includes documentaries spanning from the Civil War to present day conflicts.