Abigail Disney takes her fight to her family's turf
CTV
Abigail Disney, a longtime critic of her family's business, is taking her fight to Disney's turf: The big screen.
The activist granddaughter of Disney co-founder Roy Disney (Walt's brother) has made a movie lambasting the way the Walt Disney Co. treats its theme park employees. Abigail Disney co-directed "The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales" with Kathleen Hughes, and Disney's brother Tim Disney is listed as an executive producer. Their sister, Susan Disney Lord, also helped produce the film, the New York Times reported.
The film is set to debut Monday night at the Sundance Film Festival. Disney and her siblings have not yet found a distributor for the movie, but the Times reported they are hopeful the Sundance debut will help it attract a streamer, such as Netflix or Amazon, to pick it up.
In a Sundance video promoting the film, Disney says she was inspired to create the movie after a Disneyland employee (the company calls them "cast members") reached out about pay disparity and the inability to afford enough food on theme park pay.
"It got extremely personal when I got reached out to by a cast member in Anaheim and that's when we knew there was a really important film to be made," she said. "I don't think people think about workers at 'the happiest place on earth' going without food."