Event Details

Join ReelAbilities Film Festival Columbus and GCAC for our 2025-26 season opening film, Words Left Unspoken! Enjoy a powerful film that follows a man with a stutter as he explores public speaking. The film will be followed by a discussion led by Speech-Language Pathologist, Arin Sheeler.

Feature Film:

Words Left Unspoken

Film Description:

On May 30, 2017, in Toronto, Joze Piranian takes the stage at Speaker Slam, an inspirational speaking competition, where he speaks about the pain caused by his stuttering and being different for the first time in his life. Instantly, he wins over the hearts of the judges and the crowd. As the audience rise from their seats to congratulate him with a standing ovation, he doesn’t feel ashamed of his stutter, which has never happened before. Astonished by the positive response, he’s now convinced that speaking on stage and becoming a professional speaker is what will allow him to make peace with his stutter. Meanwhile, across the ocean, in Lebanon, both his mother Corinne, father Alexis & sister Natalie, learn about Jose’s struggle with anxiety and depression for the first time while watching the video of his very first speech that he just shared on social media. While Joze’s speaking career takes off and he shares his story with thousands of people all over the world, his stutter remains a real taboo within the Piranian family. But this is about to change now that Joze is finally ready to have these conversations he never dared to have before and fully open up to the most important people in his life.

Discussion:

After the film join us for a discussion led by Speech-Language Pathologist, Arin Sheeler.

Portrait of Arin Sheeler. Sheeler is has curly, brown, shoulder-length hair and a big smile. She is wearing a grey and white sweater and is posed in front of a brick wall

Arin Sheeler, M.A., CCC-SLP is a Speech-Language Pathologist in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at The Ohio State University. She serves as a Clinical Supervisor for students in the MA-SLP program at OSU in the Aphasia Initiative and the Flaum Stuttering Clinic. She is also the proud parent of a 13-year-old son who stutters and has spent several years immersed in the stuttering community through FRIENDS (The National Association of Young People Who Stutter). Arin has also worked at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center at Dodd Hall Rehabilitation Hospital where she provided inpatient speech therapy services to patients in the stroke and TBI units. Prior to moving to Columbus, Arin was employed in Baltimore, MD, at The Snyder Center for Aphasia Life Enhancement (SCALE) at The League for People with Disabilities, where she provided speech therapy services under the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (LPAA) service delivery model. Arin received her Master of Arts degree in Speech-Language Pathology in 2008 from Ohio University and began her career working with children in the K-12 school setting prior to transitioning to working with adults with acquired brain injury in 2012. She lives in Columbus, OH, with her husband and 3 children.

When:

October 2, 2025 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Where:

182 E. Long St., Columbus, OH 43215 Street parking is available

Cost:

Free

Access:

Open Captions, Wheelchair Accessible

Schedule of events:

5:30 PM: Film screening begins

6:30 PM: Discussion

Questions? Contact Nikki Swift at info@ArtPossibleOhio.org or call 380.799(MAKE)