Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability - LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired

How to Catch the Films from Superfest 2017!

Visitor — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 22:13:02 +0000

The Longmore Institute on Disability and LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired are still so excited about the success of Superfest 2017! Although this year's festival has come to an end, this post will let you know how you can still watch or learn more about some of your favorite characters, films, and directors! And don't miss the chance to catch six of these films with audio description and captioning twice a day throughout December 2017 and January 2018 on SFGOVTV2 either on your tv or streaming to your computer. Click here for the schedule or here to watch now.

Info for films that screened on Saturday, November 4^th Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Berkeley:

CHIEF This reverent ode to the service dog tells the story of German immigrant Sonja Ohldag, who is diagnosed with a seizure disorder after moving to the U.S. in 1999. Unable to afford a service animal from an organization, Sonja trains her dogs herself and takes a chance on Chief, who is not your average service dog. Keep up with @chief - a service dog on Facebook.

MIND/GAME: The UNQUIET JOURNEY OF CHAMIQUE HOLDSCLAW Basketball superstar Chamique Holdsclaw faced six felony counts, the possibility of prison and public attacks on her character. Her rollercoaster attempts at recovery from near suicide reveal an uphill battle against the stigma of psychiatric disability and show a deep journey that is powerful, revelatory, instructive and real. Learn more about Mind/Game on Twitter! @mindgamefilm Buy your home use DVD here.

WHEN BRENDEN MET HIROE A photographer from Australia returns to Japan to reunite with his friend Hiroe, who he met at a blind and deaf/blind workshop the year before. The pair spends an unforgettable day together. Learn more about this film and director on Twitter! @crossroadarts Watch the film here (Audio described but not captioned).

THE BARBER OF AUGUSTA Toronto native Matthew Genser goes to great lengths to find his unexpected superpower: cutting hair. Like all superheroes, he has a dark side; but in his costume, he’s invincible. Put on your cape and get lined up! Follow and learn more about the Director of this short film on Twitter! @michelehozer Check out the film website.

TRAVELLER A young woman born with a disability searches for a career despite rampant discrimination. She travels to Japan where she finds strength in disability activism and community, and returns home with a newfound sense of pride. Follow and keep up with the director on Twitter: @nwayezarchesoe

ON THE OUTS: REENTRY FOR INMATES WITH DISABILITIES “On the Outs” follows three inmates with disabilities as they prepare for reentry, get discharged and navigate the challenges of returning to their old lives. Produced by the Amplifying Voices of Inmates with Disabilities (AVID) Prison Project, this documentary scrutinizes the prison institution and its treatment of inmates with disabilities. This film can be rented or purchased from: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ontheoutsa There is also a link to a non-AD non-Opencaps version at: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ontheouts Follow on twitter: @avidproject Learn more about Rooted in Rights and see other films on their website here.

SIGN Two men meet on a train—and a tender and unspoken love story unfolds. Through vignettes, music and sign language, “Sign” follows the relationship between Ben (hearing) and Aaron (Deaf) as they navigate life’s milestones side by side. Follow and learn more about this film on Twitter: @signthefilm

IN CRYSTAL SKIN In Bogotá, Colombia, a charismatic eleven-year-old named Maria lives with the limitations imposed by a rare skin disease. Her fierce bond with her mother is tested and strengthened as they struggle to preserve Maria’s swiftly passing childhood. For more information on this film follow @incrystalskin on Twitter, as well as stream through Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/216918967 (No AD)

STAB: LIFE AS A VOODOO DOLL An animated comic medical memoir dedicated to all those who live with chronic illness or disability. Writer and director Jeanette Castillo pairs her tongue-and-cheek personal account of living with Type 1 diabetes with criticism of the American healthcare system. Keep up and learn more about this film by following its Facebook page.

Info for films that screened on Sunday, November 5^th at The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco:

DEEJ After being abandoned by his birth parents, DJ found not only a loving family but a life in words through a text-to-voice synthesizer. Told by DJ himself, “Deej” was filmed over six years in the American Midwest and chronicles his journey to become Oberlin’s first non-speaking, autistic student. Info on how to catch this film at www.DeejMovie.com or order your DVD at https://www.deejmovie.com/store. Deej will also be broadcast by America ReFramed throughout the week following Tuesday, December 26. Follow and learn more about this film through twitter! @deejmovie

ON BEAT This documentary short follows the lives of a deaf couple with hearing children and the unexpected outlet that brings their family closer together. Purchase and stream all of Reid Davenport’s films at: http://throughmylens.us/reids-films/. Follow and learn more about this film's director on twitter! @ReidDavenport

LEFTY & LOOSEY In this techy ode to film noir, two amputee veterans turned private investigators uncover a diabolical plot and must overcome their fears to crack the code and save the world. Follow and learn more about this film and the director/actor/writer on Twitter! @david_harrell Watch it here (non-AD).

RHIZOPHORA Forty years after the Vietnam War, the toxic remnants of Agent Orange have not faded. In this dreamlike meditation on the impact of war and the resilience of humanity, "Rhizophora" follows 11 disabled Vietnamese youth on a whimsical, poignant and whirling journey through a day in their lives. Follow and learn more about this film on Facebook! @rhizophoramovie Visit the website.

WELL DONE A sharply-dressed young man with Down syndrome sneaks out of his house to visit an art museum and causes a disruption. Through humor and irreverence, this film reminds us that art can be interpreted by everyone, not just the "experts." Keep up and learn more about Well Done on Facebook.

Tags:

Disability film

LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Superfest

Longmore Institute Director's NY Times Op-ed: The Price of 'Disability Denial'

Visitor — Wed, 24 May 2017 19:39:44 +0000

By: Catherine Kudlick

The following piece is cross-posted from the New York Times Op-Eds; see the original post here.

It was 1989 and I was immersed in my first teaching job, a one-year gig at Barnard College, with the possibility of something long-term. During that time, I had become friendly with a senior colleague named Bill. On our many walks along Broadway to grab deli sandwiches, we’d talked about our grad school days at Berkeley, the high rent of tiny apartments in New York and how to get the Barnard women to share our passion for European history in the small classes they’d asked me to teach.

One morning outside his office something felt off. Bill, who would be part of the team deciding whether to hire me, seemed nervous. Then he came out with it: “I’m wondering if you’d be able to guest lecture in my 100-person western civ class.” As I took this in, he added, “It’s part of, um, your interview for getting a permanent job here.”

I always knew my day at the podium would come. In fact, on one of our walks I’d asked Bill for advice about teaching larger classes. I told him about the details of my lifelong vision impairment and of my terror of public speaking, and asked about how I’d deal with calling on students when I couldn’t see them. In smaller classes, I learned quickly where people sat, and the give-and-take of conversation told me who was engaged. But applying this to more than 30 people seemed overwhelming.

I have nystagmus, a condition in which involuntary, jumpy movement of my eye muscles makes it difficult to focus, a chore that constantly challenges my brain as it frantically tries to keep up. As a child, my thick bifocal glasses and lack of confidence made me the brunt of cruel names and pranks, like being surrounded by kids who threw things on the ground and forced me to look for them. Later there were awkward, sometimes hostile encounters with potential landlords, dates and employers who I tried to brush off as a few gross kids who never grew up.

It had been a huge step to “come out” to Bill about the lifelong vision impairment that I thought I could hide. Starting in a new place with my doctorate safely in hand seemed like the perfect time to try on a new identity, one where I could be more upfront with others — and with myself — about what I could and could not see.

I remember the door frame with its chipped paint, Bill’s messy desk, the scuffed linoleum, the fluorescent lights that made us both ghastly as we stood on the threshold. I imagine an old clock ticking in the background. A soft, cracking voice — mine but not mine — finally broke the silence: “Is this something all job candidates have to do?”

“Um, well uh, no. It’s just that there’s, uh, concerns we don’t have about other candidates, about how you’d handle a large class, you know, because of your … well, you know.”

Of course I knew. At the same time, I didn’t want to know.

I paused, sensing that whatever I said next could destroy my chances for this job, and even future ones.

“I won’t do something that nobody else is required to do,” I said at last with a quiet force that surprised me. It was my first awareness of a visceral complicity between my body’s memory and my soul’s need to cry out — a feeling that one day I’d call conviction.

“I’m disappointed,” Bill said, “but of course it’s up to you.”

All at once, my nystagmus was on a rampage, not just in my eyes but throughout my body, from the hair on the back of my neck to my toes digging into the front of my shoes. I’m frozen. I’m tangled. I’m powerful from the force of it, oblivious and achingly hyper-aware. I want to vomit. I want to lash out. I want to run screaming.

Bracing against the door frame, I wondered how much of this was apparent to Bill. I said nothing, even as words formed: This is betrayal. This is wrong. This is discrimination.

It’s a painful revelation. The mind and the body fuse into one ugly knot of humiliation, anger, fear, doubt. You’re at this crossroads: You can suck it up and carry on as before. Or you can fight back.

All this happened the year before the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed. One of the little-recognized side effects of disability denial is that it inhibits the firing of the synapses that enables people to think of themselves as having rights. In other words, I was still many years away from believing that laws like the A.D.A., or any precursors that were in effect, applied to me.

But Bill and I — like most people around us and too many Barnards then and now — had been brainwashed in the same well-meaning society that still fails disabled people. We sat through tear-jerking movies where helpless blind girls groped and stumbled. Our heartstrings were pulled by fund-raisers showing blindness at its worst to raise money for cures that could be many years away. Images like these isolate people with disabilities not just from society but also from one another.

Though I am not fully blind, my vision impairment, and the challenges it presents, has made me particularly attuned to how others perceive blind people. Our words equate blindness with being out of control and clueless — phrases like “love is blind,” “blind rage,” “blind to the possibilities,” to “blindly carry on.” Such ideas slip quietly into our souls. They find their way onto playgrounds and into news stories, and before long they’re floating inside and outside of doctor’s offices, in sports competitions, film studios, policy debates. And in job interviews.

For the decade after Barnard it would be three steps forward, two steps back: a therapist who helped me ask if I’d rather imagine myself as an incompetent sighted person or a competent blind one; finding an exciting research topic in the history of blind people; discovering I’m a real ham when it comes to lecturing — the bigger the crowd the better.

But at my core I remained haunted and hurting. I couldn’t find a healing way to tell the Barnard story: Either every little detail poured out in a frightening rant or I clammed up, wondering if I really wasn’t qualified after all. Even as I researched and learned more about blind people’s history, I did everything I could to avoid being seen as “one of them.” Using a magnifier in public mortified me as much as the white cane I shoved into the back of my closet.

Then one day I met Bryan, a dynamic blind guy on the other coast who was several steps ahead of me on the journey. Each intense phone conversation upended years of denial and self-loathing. A wall I’d unknowingly constructed between me and the world began to crumble as I found strength and beauty in places I’d assumed to be off-limits.

He introduced me to the National Federation of the Blind’s Kernel Books, matter-of-fact stories told by blind people explaining how they did things nobody thought they could do: babysit, barbecue, teach. Each concluded that blindness isn’t the real problem; society’s responses to it is. Reading the first few, I began to sob uncontrollably. I had spent my life avoiding blind people, and in these pages I met scores of them living life with dignity. Now I was open to anything or anyone who would actively challenge my self-imposed limitations by encouraging me to embark on exciting adventures.

If Bill were still alive, I’d strut up to him with my white cane and proudly lead him to “Patient No More: People W ith Disabilities Securing Civil Rights,” the disability history exhibition I spearheaded. I would take him to the yearly Superfest International Disability Film Festival that my organization co-hosts with Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco to experience real camaraderie among disabled people and our allies. At both he’d discover captions and audio descriptions that he’d appreciate as someone entering old age.

Future Bills and Cathys need more fresh ideas like these about disabled people. Once freed from prejudice and shame, they can teach the largest class of all — society — to imagine people with disabilities as innovators, problem-solvers and true agents for change.

Tags:

Americans with Disabilities Act

Catherine Kudlick

disability history

education

LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired

op ed

Patient No More

Superfest: International Disability Film Festival

Uncategorized

Save the Date: Two Chances to Watch Films from Superfest 2015

Visitor — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 19:47:51 +0000

Missed out on the 2015 Superfest? Have no fear, the Superfest Showcase will be screening some of our best recent shorts at a San Francisco location near you!

Superfest: International Disability Film Festival is a showcase of juried films held in the San Francisco Bay Area, co-presented by the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability and the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Vision Impaired. For nearly 30 years, this annual competition has celebrated cutting-edge cinema that portrays disability in all its diverse, complex, and engaging facets. We are proud to be the longest running disability film festival in the world. Visit superfestfilm.com to learn more about the 2016 festival, October 22 and 23 in Berkeley and San Francisco.

Sunday, August 14th at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch (1-4pm in the Latino Hispanic Community Room)

Featuring:

Predators of Transylvania (2015 Disabled Filmmaker Award Winner) [7 min.]
Director: Julia Kolenakova; Slovakia

Nothing is quite as it seems in this Slovakian folklore-inspired animation.

To Be or Not To Be (2015 Excellence Award Winner) [61 min.]
Director: Aziz Zairov; Kazakhstan

An actor who is disabled rehearses Hamlet's soliloquy and questions whether to live or die.

Regione Caecorum (In the Land of the Blind) (2015 P.K. Walker Innovation in Craft Award) [3 min.]
Director: Drew Goldsmith; U.S.

If a society is built with blind people as the norm, it might be the person with sight who feels disabled.

The Gift (of Impermanence) (2105 Artistry Award Winner) [11 min.]
Director: Alex Ketley; U.S.

Axis Dance Company's choreography allows an audience to explore what is beautiful about the diverse body.

Rent-A-Crip (2015 Disability Comedy Award) [3 min.]
Director: Terry Galloway and Diane Wilkins; U.S.

A savvy group of disabled people have taken the reins from the able-bodied profiteers and put themselves in control.

Hole (2015) [15 min]
By Martin Edralin; Canada (explicit)

A daring portrait of a man yearning for intimacy in a world that would rather ignore him.

Bastion (2015 Best of Festival Short Winner) [11 min.]
Director: Ray Jacobs; U.K.

A completely bald man walks into a barber shop, his reflection in the window has told him it's time for a haircut.

All films are audio described and open captioned. For ASL interpreting or live captioning, contact Marti Goddard: marti.goddard@sfpl.org.

See event page here.

Tuesday, September 20th at SFSU's J. Paul Leonard Library Room 121 (12-1pm)

Featuring:

The Interviewer (2013 Best of Festival Winner) [13 min.]
Director: Genevieve Clay-Smith and R. Bryan; AUSTRALIA.

Thomas Howell gets more than he bargained for in his interview at a prestigious law firm; an insult about his tie, a rendition of Harry Potter, and the chance to change the lives of a father and son.