It’s a well-known adage: “Never talk about politics or religion,” and the topic of “disability” could surely also be included among those prickly subjects, too loaded with semantic complexities and opportunities to offend to be successfully navigated. However, disabled dance artist Claire Cunningham’s gently sophisticated documentary on the influence religion has over perceptions of physical disability, Guide Gods, achieves a surprising feat: a thought-provoking examination of prejudice that is, somehow, simultaneously uplifting.

It’s not an easy task to defang a topic as divisive as religion, and some of the details of Cunningham’s research are, at face value, confronting. A former Buddhist monk, defrocked for being disabled, claims his disability is a karmic repercussion of wrongdoing in a previous life; deaf Muslims are told not to pray because their disability guarantees entry into paradise; evangelical Christians pray for cures instead of accepting the disabled as fellow human beings. Where disability is concerned, religion is polarising: it is either divine or demonic. But Cunningham’s searching and insightful study is no grim sermon. It infuses this delicate subject matter with a playful spirit, taking these imposing concepts and shrinking them to a far more approachable scale.

Cunningham has considered the way her audience engage...