👉 About: Touching the Sky Documentary
👉 Official Trailer: Touching the Sky Documentary
👉 Register: Sneak Preview: Touching the Sky Documentary
Trust Begins Before We Take Off
Picture a clear spring sky, a base rooted firmly on the mat, and Chris Jeckel, blind since childhood, spiraling upward, arms outstretched, trusting hands he cannot see. The whoosh of lift, the crowd’s quiet gasp, the pulse of sudden freedom: it’s a far cry from the lonely corner of the grade-school gym where he once sat listening to basketballs echo without ever catching a pass. That moment of flight is more than acrobatics; it is the physical proof that connection can replace isolation and that courage can trump circumstance.
Touching the Sky captures this transformation with honesty and joy, showing how Acro Yoga (partner yoga that adds simple acrobatic lifts, with one person balancing or flying the other in the air) turns strangers into partners and spectators into allies. On May 30, 2025 the filmmakers will stream the first 20 minutes online, fully audio-described and open to anyone with a screen and a heartbeat. I’m inviting you to watch, invest, and share, because every ticket sold and every dollar pledged accelerates a bigger mission: demonstrating, once again, that inclusion isn’t charity, it’s strategy. Join me under the virtual big top, and let’s feel the lift together.
Chris Jeckel’s Journey: From Darkness to Lift
Chris lost most of his sight at nine. In gym class he sat on the bleachers tracing the squeak of sneakers, waiting for a ball that never reached his hands. That ache, of hearing life in motion but never being passed the play, etched a deep quiet into his childhood and, like so many of us with disabilities, taught him early to scan rooms for exit routes rather than invitations.
Then a friend coaxed him onto an Acro Yoga mat. The first time Chris felt a partner’s feet seat into his hips and lift, balance replaced caution; trust replaced sight. Suspended against open air he realized the power of touch to rewrite an old script: here, you succeed only by communicating, adjusting, and literally supporting one another. It was the pass he’d waited decades to catch, and it never stopped coming.
Today that same kid from the bleachers is a JD-credentialed strategist managing multi-billion-dollar benefit plans at Boeing, a Second City improv alum who can command a stage, and the executive producer of the very film telling his story. Chris doesn’t need sight to spot opportunity; he builds it, funds it, and invites the rest of us to climb aboard.
Why Touching the Sky Matters
We are living through what the U.S. Surgeon General calls an epidemic of loneliness, yet here is a story that literally lifts people into one another’s arms. Touching the Sky lets us witness how shared balance and breath dissolve isolation far more effectively than any viral hashtag. Watching a blind athlete and a sighted partner negotiate a pose in real time is a masterclass in communication, and a reminder that interdependence, not independence, is the super-power we’ve forgotten to practice.
The team has hard-wired accessibility into every frame. Award-winning voice artist Michele Spitz is crafting audio description so that blind viewers experience the same cinematic sweep as everyone else; the producers test each cut with Lighthouse for the Blind San Francisco and Blind Veterans UK workshops, adjusting until every cue lands. Accessibility isn’t a retrofit here, it’s baked in, the blueberries are already in the muffin, proving inclusive design can be both beautiful and efficient.
Momentum is real. A letter of intent from PBS positions the finished film for millions of living rooms in 2026, and the 30-minute preview earned standing applause at Napa Valley’s StreamFest this Spring. In other words, the rocket is on the launchpad; what’s needed now is fuel. By showing up on May 30, 2025 and contributing what you can, you help move this story from festival buzz to global broadcast, and turn a counter-narrative into the new normal.
Inclusion as Strategic Advantage, My Professional Lens
Numbers first: when Disability:IN teamed with Accenture to analyze hundreds of public companies, the businesses that lead on disability inclusion out-performed peers by two-to-one on net income and saw 28 percent higher revenue per employee. That isn’t feel-good fluff; it’s shareholder value. My career, from turning around century-old nonprofits to advising Fortune 50 boards, has taught me the same lesson again and again: invite disabled talent to the table, and the table grows.
Stories, however, are the accelerant that makes those metrics stick. Policies change only after hearts do, and films like Touching the Sky deliver a visceral jolt that PowerPoints never will. Watching Chris Jeckel place his life, literally, into another person’s hands persuades audiences in eight seconds what a white paper takes forty pages to explain: trust breeds performance.
Some will say, “But Kirk, acro yoga is so niche.” Exactly. The bicycle was niche until millions rode to work. Acro is simply a vivid metaphor for any environment where collaboration beats solo effort, which is to say, every modern workplace. The return on investing in this film isn’t limited to circus rigs; it’s the ripple effect of universal trust spreading through boardrooms, classrooms, and family rooms worldwide.
Sneak-Peek on May 30, 2025, Your First 20 Minutes in the Air
Circle the date: Thursday, May 30, 2025. Show & Tell Films will host a one-evening global stream of Touching the Sky‘s first twenty minutes, no geo-blocks, no barriers, just click, sit back, and lift off. The creative team and I will be live in the chat for a real-time Q&A, ready to unpack everything from camera rigs to cane travel. Register in under a minute, invite a friend, and you’re on the flight manifest.
What will you see? The preview opens with that sky-blue tableau of Chris balancing high above his base, then drops you into campfire conversations where blind and sighted partners trade jokes about trust before launching into slow-motion Icarian tosses that make gravity look optional. Every visual beat is paired with rich audio description, so blind viewers catch the nuance of a flicked wrist or a mid-air grin right alongside everyone else.
Every ticket sold and every donation pledged on May 30, 2025 goes straight to finishing costs, color grading, sound mix, festival fees and pushing us toward a locked picture and PBS broadcast in 2026. Think of your registration as both movie night and seed capital; you get the thrill of early access, and the film gets the fuel it needs to reach millions more screens.
How You Can Lift This Project Higher
First, claim your boarding pass: register for the May 30, 2025 stream, mark your calendar, and encourage a colleague or family member to watch beside you. The link in the footer handles the logistics in two clicks, and the platform is screen-reader friendly from landing page to post-event survey.
If you’re moved to do more, choose a funding tier that matches your capacity, think “Wingman” at $50, “Pilot” at $250, or corporate “Flight Crew” sponsorships starting at $5,000. Every level receives on-screen thank-yous in the final credits, and sponsors gain co-branding on festival and PBS outreach. Your contribution isn’t a donation in the dark; it is a visible statement that inclusive stories deserve first-class production values.
Finally, spread the word. Forward the invite to your employee resource group, yoga studio, sports club, or faith community; post a quick note on LinkedIn with the hashtag #TouchingTheSkyFilm; ask your company’s communications team to feature the sneak-peek in their next newsletter. Momentum grows person to person, lift to lift, the very same way Chris learned to fly.
When We Lift Together, Everyone Touches the Sky
From the silent bleachers of Chris Jeckel’s youth to the soaring trust captured in Touching the Sky, we have followed a journey that transforms isolation into collective flight. Along the way we have seen how accessible filmmaking, data-driven inclusion, and community-powered funding converge into one undeniable truth: welcoming disabled talent is not a charitable sideline; it is a proven engine of innovation and profit. The May 30, 2025 sneak-peek is our chance to witness that truth in motion, and to accelerate a story poised for national broadcast.
So here’s the invitation, plain and urgent: register, watch, give if you can, and share.
Join me under the virtual big top. Let’s feel the lift, fund the future, and prove, once again, that inclusion isn’t charity, it’s strategy.
” Inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a strategic advantage. “
Dr. Kirk Adams, Ph.D.
Advocate, Leader and Keynote Speaker on Disability Inclusion & Leadership
Leading the Way to Accessible Innovation
Innovative Impact, LLC Consulting
Managing Director
Impactful Workforce Inclusion Starts Here
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