Abigail E. Disney is holding a magnifying glass to the company founded by her family in the first trailer for “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.” Through the lens of the Happiest Place on Earth, the documentary, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, examines the wealth disparity between the rich and the poor in the United States.
“The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” was directed by Kathleen Hughes and Abigail Disney, whose grandfather Roy O. Disney co-founded The Walt Disney Company with his brother Walt Disney. In addition to her work as a documentary filmmaker, she is a social activist who has been working to illuminate the systemic injustice of America’s worker economy. She’s been openly critical of The Walt Disney Company’s pay practices and has long called for wage equality.
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“A custodian would have to work for 2,000 years to make what [former Disney CEO] Bob Iger makes in one,” she says in the trailer for the film, which opens in Orlando movie theaters on Sept. 16. It will expand to New York, additional markets and video-on-demand on Sept. 23.
And the struggles of the working class aren’t unique to Magic Kingdom employees. “This isn’t just the Disney story,” she continues. “It’s the story of nearly half of American workers who can’t make ends meet.”
Earlier in the footage, Disney is seen testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, to whom she tells, “the American Dream teaches us that if you work hard enough, anything is possible.”
“Disney could raise the salary of workers to a living wage,” she offers. U.S. Representative Trey Hollingsworth replies, “That is socialism.”
According to the official logline, “Abigail Disney looks at America’s dysfunctional and unequal economy and asks why the American Dream has worked for the wealthy, yet is a nightmare for people born with less. Using her family’s story, Disney explores how this systemic injustice took hold and imagines a way toward a more equitable future.”
Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge praised the documentary as an “engaging economics lesson.”
“It makes a powerful statement when a member of one of America’s most respected families steps forward and demands change,” he wrote in his review. “It’s even harder to ignore when this Disney descendant provides the public an entertaining, easy-to-digest film to explain the inequality hiding in plain sight.”
Abagail Disney’s prior credits include producing the documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” and executive producing, writing and directing “The Armor of Light.”
Watch the trailer for “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” below:
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