How Slamdance and different festivals are working to acknowledge incapacity | Options

Juliet Romeo met Peter Baxter, the co-founder and president of Slamdance, at a Zoom session in mid-2020 giving advice to Miami filmmakers. She was impressed with Baxter’s open-mindedness and contacted him to discuss her own films in which people like herself live with sickle cell anemia.

That email blew up and Slamdance (running online February 12-25, 2021) is launching its first unstoppable program, 22 short films by YouTubers with disabilities and a series of themed lectures and panels. Showcasing the work of disabled artists fits in with the slam dance ethos: artist-led programs and a desire to “explore new forms of stories that we have never seen before and that speak the truth,” says Baxter.

Romeo curated the selection along with four other programmers – Gabriel Cordell, Asha Chai-Chang, Chris Furbee, and Steve Way – who decided not to include films with physically challenged actors in disabled roles.

Way is a comedian and actor (Ramy) who also suffers from muscular dystrophy. “What felt special to me was that I could bring my past experiences, my personality, my worldview into the programming,” he says. “We researched whether the actors are actually disabled. As an actor, I really fight for it. “

They selected a diverse work including the satirical music video A $$ Level by Alison Becker; Shaina Ghuraya’s science fiction comedy Human Helper; Ashley Eakin’s anti-rom-com single; Cameron S. Mitchell’s robbery story The Co-Op; and Rachel Handler and Catriona Rubenis-Stevens’ health documentary How Much Am I Worth ?.

“One of my top priorities has been to tell stories about people with disabilities without the story being just their disability,” explains Romeo. “We are just normal people who can fall in love, who can be the hero, who can hunt down thieves and who can save the girl.”

British actor, writer and director David Proud is thrilled that his BFI-supported short Verisimilitude has been selected. The film – part of the short anthology Uncertain Kingdom 20 and tells a story about a disabled actress who trains a disabled actor – has already met with great acclaim at festivals such as Encounters and Palm Springs. “We wanted to start this conversation about disabled actors in roles with disabilities, it really came at the right time,” he says. “Visibility is important, we have to be visible to be out there. We have to be part of this conversation about film. “

The Unstoppable team hopes that other festivals will follow suit. “We are showing the world that this is possible,” says Way. “Now there’s no excuse why Sundance, Toronto or Tribeca can’t do the same.”

Ongoing support

There are already festivals that take disabled filmmakers and public accessibility seriously; Special events are the Superfest in San Francisco and the British Oska Bright Film Festival and Together! Film festival for the disabled.

Every major festival has an accessibility plan, and hybrid and online events can improve opportunities to reach a disabled audience. In 2021, Sundance will be offering films with subtitles and some with audio description. Its online conversations and events feature live subtitles; and for all personal questions and answers after the film, live interpretation services in American Sign Language (ASL) are available upon request.

The Berlinale offers German sign language interpretation for discussions and / or films with German audio description via the Greta app. Cannes publishes a bespoke guidebook for visitors with disabilities, and its hospitality team also offers bespoke guides. Toronto notes that the availability of captiview and listening devices, more subtitles and more online information about accessibility has increased. It also offered on-demand ASL for its industry programs in 2020. Venice says that “all of our cinemas are fully equipped for accessibility with extensive practical advice in our information service”.

Like Slamdance, the Sydney Film Festival offers both accessibility and visibility: its Screenability Initiative started in 2016 in partnership with Create NSW as a platform for the work of filmmakers with disabilities. The program runs alongside Create NSW’s disabled internship program and a production fund for disabled filmmakers.

“The strand aimed to validate the disabled cinema as a vibrant and provocative voice that adds to screen culture,” says writer / director Sofya Gollan, investment manager and screenability curator at Create NSW Screen. “[The festival] as a platform for public relations gave the filmmakers credibility as professional filmmakers and expanded their network with other practitioners. “

It was also sold out to the public. Sydney employees are trained each year in Access best practices. Gollan suggests that other festivals “should conduct an access audit with qualified organizations and acknowledge and accept that access will not be an item in the budget once, not twice, but continuously”.

British producer Lindsey Dryden, whose credits include Trans In America and Unrest, is a member of the BFI’s Disability Advisory Board. She has a wish list for festivals: work with D / deaf and disabled programmers; require filmmakers to provide subtitled and audio-descriptive films (and to fund these costs); Offering demonstrations with live subtitles and audio descriptions; welcome disabled critics; Expanding access to social, pitching and networking events; Working with fully accessible venues; and asking disabled filmmakers to give lectures that do not address disabilities.

“As a filmmaker, I find it incredibly exciting when film organizations not only dutifully include deaf and disabled people, but get enthusiastic about it – because they recognize that we have a value and of course should be included in culture and society. “Says Dryden. “One in five people in the UK have a disability, many of which are invisible, and film festivals can be much better for both filmmakers and audiences.”

Festivals can also benefit financially. “The disabled pound is valued at over £ 250 billion” [$347bn] annually to the UK business, ”notes Dryden.

She is also a founding member of Documentary Filmmakers With Disabilities (FWD-Doc), whose aim is to “work with industry partners to write a range of tips, guidelines and resources for the industry”. She also hopes that the BFI’s Press Reset campaign, launched in July 2020, “can provide the film industry with important action points to engage deaf and disabled talent and viewers and to think differently about representation, authenticity and justice”.

Proud, who is also a member of the BFI Disability Advisory Board and the Bafta Film Committee, senses that change is taking place. “The diversity conversation took an additional step forward [in 2020]. The wind is in the sails and we have a moment of change. “