Special Olympics Florida athlete and actress Anna Sargent debuts her acting talents in the film Take Me Home, written and directed by Anna’s sister Liz Sargent, at the Sundance Film Festival as it hits the big screen for the first time. Redefine Magazine called the film, “A tender, honest work which offers little-seen insight into the often overlooked world of cognitive disability. ”Take Me Home” emphasizes empowering people with disabilities to speak in an authentic voice by giving the audience insight into the characters’ lives from a unique point of view.
The film was shot in Orlando, Florida and went on to show at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the South by Southwest Conference & Festival (SXSW) after its Sundance premiere. Take Me Home will be shown at the Florida International Film Festival on 14 – 21 April where Anna, an Orlando, Florida resident will get to take in her performance accompanied by her friends and family. While at SXSW, the film was centered in education panels, Courageous Conversations and Sibling Leadership Network, among other community centers and colleges’ educational presentations. The emotional performance is a cinematic construct of what it looks like working and living with people with intellectual disability (ID).
While Take Me Home is Anna’s first time acting, she takes naturally to the screen. Anna, a Korean American adoptee, was born with a cyst on her brain leaving her with short term memory and various degrees of cognitive and physical disabilities. She grew up in the Midwest as the youngest sibling of 11 children. Anna competes in Special Olympics basketball, bowling, pickleball and tennis in Orlando and enjoys theatre and music, especially High School Musical, Zombies and Idina Menzel.
