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Across the Universe-City

Still from the short film, Across the Universe-city. A whiteboard with sticky notes and the question "what does accessibility mean to you?"

The TMU Employees with Disabilities Community Network is proud to present Across the Universe-City, a short film about the lived experiences of TMU employees with disabilities.  

Taking a collaborative and consensus-based approach, the network created the film with these goals in mind:

  • to educate about the impacts of ableism and the importance of combating its effects
  • to increase the awareness of accessibility and barriers on campus as well as how to address them
  • to empower employees with disabilities to seek out supports available on campus
  • to ignite community engagement about accessibility and anti-ableism as a shared responsibility

The network’s hope is that this film is a valuable and lasting resource that will benefit all members of our community.

About the short film

A film by Cyrus

Produced in collaboration with Employees with Disabilities Community Network at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU)

With the generous support from TMU’s:

  • Office of the President 
  • Office of Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion
Film credits

Production Manager

Wilson Lin

Camera

  • Lekan Agunbiade
  • Shay Schwartzman
  • Cyrus Sundar Singh

Sound Recordist

Wilson Lin

Editing and Animation

Conall Pendergast

Sound Mixing

Marcus Huyskens

Composer

Cyrus Sundar Singh

Musicians

  • Sricamalan Pathmanathan: Miruthangam and Tabla
  • Cyrus Sundar Singh: Guitars, bass, and drums
  • Poet Isis Oya: Spoken word

Narrators

  • Muffa Munshi
  • Heather Willis

Post Production Studio

LifeStyle Media Inc

Subjects in order of Appearance

Sricamalan Pathmanathan

HR and Employment Equity Coordinator and 

Co-chair, Employees with Disabilities Community Network

Elizabeth Mohler

Former Project Coordinator, Magnet 

Susan Silver

Associate Professor, School of Social Work and 

Co-chair, Employees with Disabilities Community Network

Jyothy Nair

Registered midwife and nurse and TMU alumni

James McKay

Manager Talent Acquisition

Sandy Carpenter

Academic Services and Learning Strategy Coordinator, Athletics

Mary Economou Green

Retired TMU contract lecturer and CUPE 3904 retiree

Kelly Campbell

Assistant Director, National Student Recruitment

Joanne Dallaire

Elder (Ke Shay Hayo) and Senior Advisor,  Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation

Charmian Zoll

Communication Specialist, Facilities Management and Development

Leanne Sachs

Program Manager, Privacy, Compliance and Records Management

Heather Willis

Accessibility Coordinator, Office of the Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion

Rudhra Persad

Manager, Student Engagement and Development, Faculty of Community Services

Murtaza Haider

Professor, Department of Real Estate Management

Sinthuran Jegatheeswaran

iBEST Research Associate, St. Michael’s Hospital and TMU

Eliza Chandler

Associate Professor, School of Disability Studies

Crystal Mark: Poet, Isis Oya

Former Education and Awareness Consultant, Office of the Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion

Yvonne Simpson

Curriculum Specialist, Office of the Vice-Provost, Academic

Muffa Munshi

Project Coordinator—PMO—Magnet

Dr. Tanya De Mello

Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion  

Jennifer Alefounder

Director, Workplace Wellbeing Services  

Erica McDiarmid

Former Mental Health Lead, Workplace Wellbeing Services

Morgan Kool

TMU alumni 

Tandem Bike Captains 

Mitchell Kamiel  

Ken Deering 

Acknowledgements

  • Michelle Cho, TMU staff
  • Trisha Anne Parco, TMU student
  • Carter Nickerson, TMU student
  • Image Arts, Creative School, TMU
  • The Image Centre, TMU
  • The Chang School, TMU
  • The Catalyst, TMU
  • TMU Farmers Market
  • Adam Chaboryk, Digital Media Projects, Computing and Communications Services
  • Toronto Metropolitan Faculty Association
  • Andrei Cojita, Senior Director of Finance, Administration and Strategic Programs, 
  • Faculty of Science
  • Workplace Wellbeing Services
  • Mara Eksteins, volunteer at the Farmers Market
  • Kavisha Vaikunthan, accompanied for eastern drums of miruthangam and tabla
  • CUPE 3904, TMU

Student volunteers

  • Nicholas Bavetta
  • Paul Beniaminov
  • Eamon Boily
  • Brianna Burns
  • Mihir Kore
  • Bojana Lelas
  • Liam Mackenzie
  • Maya Martelluzzi
  • Brooke McCarthy
  • Felisa Nguyen
  • Sia Prasad
  • Yusuf Shamma

All original music © Cyrus Sundar Singh

The Office of the Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion

Across the Universe-City

© MMXIII Toronto Metropolitan University

All rights reserved. No part of this film may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher, expect in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

For all permission requests regarding usage, please contact The Employees with Disabilities Community Network (EwDCN)  at Toronto Metropolitan University at:  ewdcnetwork@torontomu.ca.

Get in touch or join the network 

To get in touch with the Employees with Disabilities Community Network, please contact:

Sricamalan (Sri) Pathmanathan
Human Resources and Employment Equity Coordinator, Human Resources
Email: pathmana@torontomu.ca
Phone: 416-979-5000, ext. 557976

Dr. Susan Silver
Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Faculty of Community Services
Email: ssilver@torontomu.ca
Phone: 416-979-5000, ext. 556216