Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability - Superfest 2016

5 Reasons to Buy Your Tickets to Superfest Today!

Visitor — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 19:45:31 +0000

With Superfest: International Disability Film Festival just a few weeks away, we encourage you to join us for the 30th anniversary celebration!

Screenings are October 22nd at 1pm & 6pm, with Party at 4:30, at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life in Downtown Berkeley; and October 23rd at 1pm at The Contemporary Jewish Museum in Downtown San Francisco.

5 Reasons to Buy Your Tickets to Superfest Today:

1. It’s Superfest’s 30th Anniversary and we’re having a big party!

2. The festival is emceed by 2 hilarious comedians with disabilities.

Follow Nina G on Twitter @NinaGComedian

3. With a record number of submissions and films from around the globe, you'll love this line up!

4. Free access tours at The Contemporary Jewish Museum. Arrive early on Sunday for described and ASL interpreted tours of the museum.

5. Superfest is the most accessible film festival in the world—we have open captioning, audio description, live captioning, integrated seating for wheel chair riders, scent free zone, assisted listening devices, ASL interpreters, and more. Buy your TICKETS today!

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Superfest 2016

Superfest: International Disability Film Festival

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An Interview with Superfest Judge and Audio Describer Katie Murphy

Visitor — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 17:35:22 +0000

Continuing our series of interviews with the folks who made Superfest 2016 possible , Grad Assistant Robyn Ollodort spoke with Katie Murphy, former Longmore Institute grad assistant and audio describer extraordinaire. Katie's audio description is used for the film Like If..., in which an unlikely heroine emerges and attempts to save the world. Like If... screens Saturday, October 22nd at 6pm. Buy your tickets to Superfest now at: superfestfilm.com/tickets/

Robyn Ollodort: As a part of the Superfest 2016 judging weekend, I got to see your fantastic audio description skills firsthand. Tell me about your process in audio describing.

Katie Murphy: For the judging weekend, I was doing live, on-the-spot description without having seen the films before. So, that’s very different from creating an audio description track for a film. With live audio description, particularly for media I have not seen before, the process begins and ends when the film does. When I am watching, I make note of important details being conveyed visually and then wait for a moment of quiet in the film to describe those details. This is tricky when I haven’t seen the film previously, because I have no idea when those quiet moments will come up or how long they’ll last. As Cathy and Bryan, the two judges I was describing for, can tell you, this means I occasionally begin description only to stop after a word or two because the quiet moment was only one or two seconds long. Live audio description like this is very much in the moment.

Creating an audio description track that will be added to a film in post-production is much more precise, but also more time consuming. I start by loading the film into InqScribe, my favorite transcription software, and then using the timestamp feature to record all the pauses in the film. Depending on the film, any pause longer than 3 seconds is fair game for inserting description. I record 2 second pauses as well in case I get desperate for space later on.

The next step is rewatching the film and filling in the pauses with description. I do this in InqScribe as well, because it allows me to use hot keys to pause and start the film without having to toggle between a Word file and a media player. When writing, I time myself to make sure that the description fits into the pause. If it doesn’t, I revise along the way.

Depending on the project, I might send the finished script to the director for approval before recording.

Then I record, using my laptop and a USB mic. I probably do at least three takes (if not more) of each segment of description, because I’m a perfectionist, and the description needs to fit into not just the pause, but also the tone of the film. I don’t do funny voices or accents or anything, but I do change the pitch and cadence of my speech to match the genre and scene. If the characters are at a funeral, I’m not going to use my perky phone voice.

Once the recording is finished, depending on the project, I either send the audio file to the filmmaker or mix it into the film file myself.

Then I take a nap.

RO: At the judging weekend, you were very transparent in linking having autism and being a good audio describer; why do you think that is, and what makes for strong audio description and a strong audio describer?

KM: Being autistic informs so much of who I am that it’s often hard to pick out how my autistic identity specifically impacts the areas in which I excel. If I am weirdly good at something right off the bat (like audio description) or completely helpless at a given task for no perceivable reason (like juggling), I tend to chalk it up to being autistic. For areas that I don’t excel, I’m typically compelled (either by myself or some authority) to explain exactly how being autistic negatively impacts my performance. For example, I suck at juggling because of poor coordination and motor planning--two autistic traits. It’s rare that I am asked to explain how being autistic makes me good at stuff, so thank you for asking.

In the case of audio description, a lot of things I already do help me be a good audio describer.

Creating strong audio description requires the describer to sort through a ton of audio and visual data to present the most relevant information. This is something people do in their everyday lives, but for many autistic people the process is much more deliberate. Since I have issues with sensory processing, my brain doesn’t automatically sort through external stimuli, so I have to consciously ignore irrelevant sensory information and focus on what’s important. Since I do this pretty much every moment of my waking life, I have years more of experience than your average allistic audio describer. Sorting through this much information requires a lot of mental and physical energy, so I’ve developed a good deal of stamina.

But I do give myself breaks to prevent sensory overload. One of the ways I do that is by listening to audiobooks when I’m out and about. I do not leave the house without my iPod, my big headphones, and an audiobook (usually sci-fi or non-fiction, because I’m a walking stereotype). As a consequence, I spend hundreds of hours a year listening to professional voice talent, absorbing cadences that work, cringing at poor production aspects. All that helps me when I’m recording. I know what makes something good.

RO: Audio description traverses the territory of objectivity and subjectivity, in that what and how you describe what you see carries with it an implicit assumption of what is important; how do you navigate choosing the 'important' things to describe?

KM: I try to balance what I believe the filmmaker is trying to communicate with what blind and low vision audience need to know to understand the film. And that changes with every project.

For example, I’ve done audio description for performance art pieces where the visual details convey the story or message in very intricate ways. So my description would include details that would not be so important in a narrative film. It might be really important for a performance art piece for everyone in the audience to know how many oranges are on the floor.

But for a narrative film, unless the oranges are an important plot point, I don’t have to go into as much detail about set dressings. Instead, I’d focus my energies on choosing language that best communicates the story and the characters. I get to imagine how I would describe the character or action if I was writing a novelization of the film.

Audio description is layers of subjectivity piled on top of each other. The description is the describer’s subjective understanding of the filmmaker’s subjective artistic message and the audience’s subjective desires.

RO: So you audio described the Superfest 2016 film Like If...; is there anything we can expect to hear in that audio description?

KM: Come Se… is an Italian film, so in addition to me on audio description, you will also hear Jennifer Sachs (of the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired) dubbing the main character’s internal monologue. So you will have four straight minutes of three women speaking (one in Italian and two in English) in a science fiction film. Which is not something you hear every day in Hollywood.

RO: You worked previously at the Longmore Institute; how do you think your time there has influenced your perspective?

KM: Thanks to my time at Longmore I am very intentional about the language I use in audio description. By screening films at Superfest with open audio description (rather than handing out headsets upon request), Longmore argues that audio description is an access feature as well as a text in its own right. As a creative text, it’s not above criticism.

I think with audio description there is a real risk of perpetuating the paternalism disabled people experience by assuming that providing audio description of any quality is good enough. There’s a risk of film and television studios patting themselves on the back like, “Oh, aren’t we being so nice by providing audio description to the disabled,” and not really caring if the audio description is actually helpful or aesthetically pleasing. Working at Longmore showed me that people do notice if the description is good or bad. People do analyze the words that you’re saying. They do consider how you are editing the description into the film.

And that really encourages me to push myself and approach writing description with the same thoughtfulness and precision as I would a speech or blog post.

RO: Do you see a career for yourself in audio description?

KM: I would love to keep doing audio description as a freelancer. I really enjoy the opportunity to work closely with artists and community organizations to increase access and make something that sounds good.

If you are interested in hiring Katie to audio describe your film, she can be contacted at: catherinekatiemurphy@gmail.com

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An Interview with Upcoming Superfest Filmmaker: Jordan Melograna

Visitor — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 22:02:11 +0000

Continuing our series of interviews with the filmmakers of Superfest 2016, Grad Assistant Alex Locust spoke with Jordan Melograna, director and producer of The Right to be Rescued. A short documentary about the impact of natural disasters on people with disabilities, The Right to be Rescued tells the story of those disabled people left behind in Hurricane Katrina and what New Orleans and other cities are doing to make sure it never happens again. For more information about the film, visit the Rooted in Rights website. The Right to be Rescued screens at Superfest on Sunday, October 23rd at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in downtown San Francisco. You can buy your tickets to Superfest now at: superfestfilm.com/tickets/

Alex Locust: What inspired you to get into filmmaking?

Jordan Melograna: I’m a child of the 80's and grew up on Spielberg, so my interest in film began with science fiction, action, and popcorn movies. Later, watching The Thin Blue Line, Grizzly Man, Sherman’s March, and other documentaries convinced me that this genre was a better fit. My first real job on a documentary was on The Powerbroker, a TV documentary about civil rights leader Whitney Young, which sparked an interest specifically in human rights related subject matter. Part of my interest in the Right to be Rescued was inspired by Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke. When I saw Lives Worth Living, I became aware of an entire civil rights movement largely overlooked in history books and it remains an inspiration for the work I do at Rooted in Rights.

AL: At the core of your organization, Rooted in Rights, is the desire to make films about important disability issues. Why do you think film is an important medium for promoting disability rights?

JM: Film is perhaps the most important medium for promoting the cause of disability rights. First and foremost, because it is both a visual and audial experience, it can be far more accessible than other forms of communication. In the U.S., we have a long history of hiding, separating, and segregating people with disabilities, whether in institutions, workshops, the special ed classroom or, increasingly, in our jails and prison. A camera can go behind those walls and remove the separation. And lastly, filmmaking is no longer restricted to filmmakers. Every person has the potential to make a film with the smartphone or tablet they probably already own. At Rooted in Rights, we believe strongly in providing the space for people with disabilities to tell their own stories, and they are stories that the rest of the population is unlikely to have heard before.

AL: How do you select your topics, and can you tell me about how you decided to do something on Hurricane Katrina?

JM: Rooted in Rights produces new videos almost every week, from short 1 min videos to short documentaries like The Right to be Rescued. We generate ideas for videos largely by listening to the disability community. There are many great bloggers and advocates who are doing great work across the world. We see our role as amplifying their messages and communicating their work to larger audiences. So we team up with Protection and Advocacy systems (P&As), Independent Living Centers (CILs), and other grassroots groups. For this film, we knew that the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina was approaching, and we felt that it was unlikely that retrospectives on the event would focus on people with disabilities. We wanted to tell those stories, and through telling them, encourage other cities to revise their emergency preparedness plans so what happened in New Orleans doesn’t happen again.

AL: In light of the recent violent tragedies in San Bernardino, CA and Sagamihara, Japan, what is your sense of the public perception around the disabled lives? Do you think that people outside of the disability community are making the changes needed to prepare for these acts?

JM: In a word, no. We were horrified by both of those events, but they are just the most famous incidents. There are other examples of people with disabilities being abused and killed by others who didn’t think their lives have value, even including parents and caregivers. And there are those who suffer the consequences of non-inclusive planning, like many in New Orleans. Fortunately, activists with disabilities are responding. They are pushing back aggressively with the message that having a disability does not mean being miserable. The recent protests against the film Me Before You are just one example of this. At Rooted in Rights, one of our digital storytellers made a video specifically addressing the Sagamihara incident. Storytelling is a great way to can change the public’s thinking, and hopefully, their actions.

AL: This film features a diversity of people sharing their stories of surviving Hurricane Katrina. Can you speak to your process of identifying a diverse group and how the intersectionality of identities played into that selection process?

JM: I should start by saying that people in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in general are weary of talking about the storm, and the bad memories it brings up, and I’m forever in debt to those who chose to share their stories in the film. New Orleans to me is one of, if not the most dynamic, eclectic cities in the country, and I felt the stories should reflect that. So the way I think about intersectionality is really about authenticity. To authentically tell this story without people with disabilities who are immigrants, African-American, or from poor communities is impossible because those identifies are part and parcel to the city. In a wider sense, the disability community is not monolithic. To authentically tell the stories from that community, you have to tell stories that intersect with issues of race, gender, sexual identify or income.

AL: What has the reception of the film been like thus far?

JM:The most important reaction so far has been from FEMA itself. A day after the film was released online, it was shown at an event hosted by Portlight Strategies, an organization that works exclusively on emergency preparedness and disabilities. Many in attendance worked at FEMA. And we’ve seen that agency and the Red Cross begin to take these issues much more seriously. We've talked to Portlight about including the film as part of a curriculum for disaster management degree programs. The film has since been shown in cities around the country, and we’ve had requests from as far away as Warsaw and Barcelona. We want anyone who sees it to feel like they can use the film as a conversation starter, and as a way to show the potential deadly consequences of not planning inclusively.

AL: What do you want audiences to leave Right to Be Rescued with?

JM: I would like audience members to feel empowered to change the way emergency planners work and think in their own communities.

AL: Do you have any recommendations for people with disabilities who may leave this film feeling overwhelmed or inspired to make change but unsure where to start?

JM: All disasters are local, so start small. Contact your city council or local Red Cross and ask directly how they plan for the needs of people with disabilities. If you don’t like the answer, get organized. Call your state’s P&A or CILs and tell them what’s going on. The time to plan for the next disaster is right now.

AL: What does being a part of Superfest mean to you as a filmmaker?

JM: It is an enormous honor for The Right to be Rescued to screen at Superfest. Your commitment to films specifically about the issues important to our community and your insistence on screening the films in the most accessible way possible couldn’t be more aligned with our values. We hope that the festival is a place where we can connect to other advocates and continue to push for inclusive emergency plans that save lives.

Buy your tickets to Superfest to see The Right to be Rescued and more great films!

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Superfest: International Disability Film Festival

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An Interview with Upcoming Superfest Filmmaker: Michael Achtman

Visitor — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 18:21:36 +0000

Enjoy this interview where Longmore Grad Assistant Alex Locust spoke with Michael Achtman, director of the film Awake, in anticipation of Superfest 2016. Awake is about the unlikely friendship that forms between two blind women: Anna, a woman living with Multiple Sclerosis is visited by Doreen, a door to door proselytizer who makes herself at home and stays the day, slowly defrosting her non-welcome. Together they walk in the park, bake a chocolate cake, and watch an Ingmar Bergman film. For more information about Michael, and his work, visit his website. Awake screens at Superfest Sunday, October 23rd, at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in downtown San Francisco.

Watch the trailer; for audio description of the trailer, click here.

Alex Locust: What was the inspiration for this film?

Michael Achtman: The inspiration for Awake was a 1963 film by Ingmar Bergman called Winter Light. The first time I saw it I fell asleep half way through, and went into a surreal, dreamy state. I ended up using that in the film, where Doreen and Anna are watching an audio described version of the Bergman film. Doreen says, “Is this the type of thing you usually watch?” And then in Doreen’s dream, they become the characters from the Bergman film. Bergman’s film is about a Swedish pastor who has lost his faith. I came up with the idea of a blind Jehovah’s Witness, which provided a way for two strangers to meet, one who has faith and the other who doesn’t. Faith in a larger sense, not religious but just to get through the day.

AL: Tell us more about the casting process - did you have a goal of hiring disabled actors?

MA: I know a lot of disabled actors, so basically I’m writing for and casting my friends. In addition to that, I’m very interested in the representation of disabled people on film, so it gives me a lot to work with. You create something and realise it hasn’t been done before – that’s powerful and very motivating.

AL: Describe your experience working with actors who are blind (accessibility features on set, scripts, travel, etc.)?

MA: It wasn’t that big of a deal. Scripts were provided electronically and we covered travel expenses. Margo and Alex, the actors, had support workers on set, whom they were able to pay through a UK programme called Access to Work. Otherwise, I would have had to budget for that. We filmed in Alex’s house, so she had a familiarity with the set; otherwise she would have needed time to get familiar enough with the space to make it believable that she actually lived there. The two guide dogs got along, which was lucky – they spent most of the time cramped together in a small room upstairs! If people are really wondering how to work with Deaf or disabled actors (or crew members), just ask them what they need. Sit down and have a chat before you go into production and try to envision every situation that might come up. But I would recommend doing that with every actor. You might find out someone has an invisible impairment, like dyslexia or pain issues, and that will inform your approach. Doreen, the LDS proselytizer, left, and Anna, right, sitting on a bench in a park.

AL: Some people in the community are frustrated with the lack of opportunities for disabled actors to play disabled characters in film. What advice do you have for filmmakers trying to cast disabled actors in their films?

MA: Go see their work and get to know them. It’s true, in the UK anyway – there are lots of fabulous Deaf and disabled actors who don’t get enough opportunities to stretch their muscles. When they do get cast, it’s as “the blind person” or “the wheelchair user.” Write something (or find a script) that isn’t all about their impairment – but more about character, situation and a believable world. That’s not to say you can’t deal with disability-specific issues – for example, the social service cuts in the UK are affecting disabled people’s lives hugely, and there’s lots of potential for drama there. But a film about that would need to focus on particular, well-rounded characters, who have both virtues and flaws. That said, you need to think about whether your filmmaking process is accessible. Money is such a big issue that we tend to work in trying conditions, with long days, on a set in the middle of nowhere, that doesn’t have an accessible bathroom. If you want to use an actor who has fatigue issues, for example, you’re going to have to take that into consideration when scheduling, using more shorter days, and budget for that from the start.

AL: While some of the moments in Awake are somber, there are some great comedic elements as well. Did you all have fun on set? Any stories you can share?

MA: It was a tiny crew, so we were like family, and we had a lot of fun. We shot the film in two days, so you had to either laugh or cry! There’s a moment in the film where the two women are passing a spliff – they struggle to find each other’s hands and when they finally do they break out in laughter. That was unscripted and real, and it turned out to be an important turning point in the film – it’s the first time you see Anna laugh or even smile. I was just praying that we captured that properly on film because we couldn’t have repeated it so spontaneously. Anna, left, and Doreen, right, in the infamous spliff scene.

AL: What audiences did you have in mind when you made this film?

MA: An intelligent, sexy audience like the one at Superfest.

AL: Can you tell us about the decision to make the film black and white?

MA: That was inspired by the Bergman film. I felt that aesthetic represented Anna’s world, and the shades of grey – well, I’m getting too arty. But it ended up having a lot of resonance because the approaches to life of the two characters are so opposite. Also, you save on colour grading! Doreen, left, and Anna, right, baking a cake.

AL: What do you want audiences to leave Awake with?

MA: I hope it doesn’t sound preachy, but it’s not your circumstances, it’s your attitude. Depression is not something you can snap your fingers and make vanish, but sometimes a little human contact and compassion can turn things in another direction. In a wider sense, I think the films creates an identification with two blind women in a way that makes their lives seem ordinary. The drama is not about their impairments, it’s about the clashing of their temperaments and philosophies.

AL: What does being a part of Superfest mean to you as a filmmaker?

MA: We’re very honoured to be part of such a prestigious festival, and excited to show the film to the Bay Area audience. The Superfest mandate is sophisticated – you’ve seen the traditional representations of disability and you’re trying to show something different – and that’s exactly what the film is trying to do.

Buy your tickets to Superfest to catch Awake and more great films!

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When Social Media Lets Us Down: A Search for Community (in all the wrong places)

Visitor — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 23:02:22 +0000

By: Robyn M. Ollodort, Longmore Institute grad student assistant

In an age of technology, sometimes the community we seek is best found in real life.

Chances are good that if you're reading this post, you're online hoping to connect with community. Type the name of one of your identities into a search bar, and you expect to find results that call to you, that draw you in. But what happens when they don’t? I am not an ambassador of the chronic illness brand. I can't run a race to find a cure. I don't own any Livestrong-style rubber band bracelets. I don't participate in hashtagged challenges, ice bucket or otherwise, on social media.

But I am #sick.

I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis in the summer of 2012, just days before my 21st birthday. AS is a flaring condition that generally involves the spine, resulting in eventual fusion of the vertebral column or effected joints. But, because I had juvenile AS that went un- and misdiagnosed for at least ten years prior, the effected joints in my body were the sacroiliac and hip. I have experienced the pain and joint discomfort I now know to call 'flares' for as long as I can remember; however, AS in my body does not just mean flares of chronic pain and inflammation. I also experience chronic fatigue as a result of AS, which may be the even more debilitating symptom. I have been tired all the time, for as long as I can remember, and no amount of sleep or stimulants has changed that this far. I have never been an athlete. I was not robbed of my ability to climb mountains. And no amount of healthy eating or exercise will stop me from needing to take a nap OR having a flare. Because, believe me, I have tried.

The thing is, this is not the common experience of arthritis, and I know this, because as soon as I was diagnosed, as soon as I had a term to type into search bars, I wanted to find other people with this disease. Other people who gave themselves shots. Other people with chronic pain and fatigue.

Taking to the internet, I found a Facebook support group, with people sharing their stories of spinal column fusion, childbirth and heredity concerns (AS has a genetic component), and an overabundance of #spoonie and #spondy baby talk photoshopped over generic images of awareness ribbons and nature scenes. This is just not who I am.

And that's what makes it so hard for me to navigate the social media communities of support set up for #chronicallyill people with #arthritis like myself. I was born in the 90’s and grew up with technology; shouldn’t I be able to find the community I’m looking for through it? Especially when it seems like everyone else in their early-to-mid-20’s is doing just fine, connecting over twitter and Facebook groups on all kinds of issues and experiences. Why was this so different?

I’ve written previously about how important I think representations are for identity. I wanted to see people, around me or otherwise, who also have to stab their abdomens with burning serums. I wanted to see people who sneered at running, and curl up on couches with bags of popcorn for Netflix marathons instead. Watching reality TV (a thing I do quite often, and am very passionate about), I was excited when Real Housewives of New York City’s Jill Zarin’s daughter, Aly, had some kind of undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy that no one really talked about, and I watched with anguish as the cast of Shah’s of Sunset doubted Golnessa “GG” Gharahedaghi’s struggle with rheumatoid arthritis and chemotherapy. But I wanted to know people in real life who deal with similar things as me. GG, looking defensive while receiving chemotherapy as treatment for her rheumatoid arthritis. Image found here.

My body betrays me constantly, I can't trust it, and maybe that's not the best way to relate to others. It's not the best basis for connection, the disease that makes me feel trapped in my own body.

But also, what these groups seem to be bonding over (pregnancy stories and decades of anguish in the healthcare system, respectively) were not the things I was concerned about; they weren’t the same questions as the ones I was asking.

Beginning my second semester of my second year of graduate school, I received an email seeking paid interns for the Superfest: International Disability Film Festival. I write about representations in tv and film, so naturally I jumped at the opportunity. In pursuing an interview, I noticed that the ad specified that the participants had to be students with disabilities – the first time my having a disability qualified me to do something special, let alone a major career move! The difference I found between support groups/Facebook pages and my experience with Superfest is that watching the film submissions, we were discussing the deeper issues of the social constructs of disability: how we are seen in society, how we want to be seen, how to make our experiences funny, and political, and REAL. The people I met were like me: college students, with full lives and career plans, and also real, life-changing experiences that shape our views of the world. We take our bodies seriously, and use our experiences of them to inform our political perspectives. Plus, we got to spend three hours a week eating snacks and watching the best movies I’ve ever seen (links direct to curated list of trailers of my favorite Superfest films: Breakfast at Ina's, Neighbors of the Other Type, Underland pt. III, Terminal Device, Supersonic, Awake, respectively)

Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m still struggling to find community, especially in places that I thought it would come naturally; but the critical gaze is much more fun when shared with friends. Author on the left. Image courtesy of SFSU Academic Technology, via Youtube.

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Superfest: International Disability Film Festival

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On Recent Heartaches

Visitor — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 17:39:46 +0000

When Media Representations Aren’t Good Enough to Let Us Live By: Robyn Ollodort I want to begin by expressing my feelings of shock and grief over the acts of violence leveraged against the queer of color community this weekend. As so many have already expressed such beautiful words to describe their sadness over the loss of lives and hurt for those injured, I can only repeat those sentiments: while marriage equality felt like progress, these moments remind us of what is left to overcome. When violent acts of this scale occur, every body is impacted, and I find it necessary to question the structures that put bodies, whether they are gay, disabled, racialized, gendered, etc., in harms way in the first place.

Like many folks in my generation, I use the internet when big things happen, from so-called reputable news sources to the opinions of those I trust, like bloggers and popular culture commentators.This post reflects this process, as I jump from blog posts and quotes that have informed my thinking and feeling over the last few days.

This Tumblr post, which popped up in my feed and seems to be quite popular right now, has a particularly emotional draw, a relatable sentiment right now; in it, the author expresses emotional exhaustion over the shooting in Orlando, a fatigue derived from grief, media misrepresentation, and taking for granted the hard-won ‘safe spaces’ afforded by gay rights and liberation movements, which have been preyed on by corporate sponsors. The author points to a common media trope, referred to as ‘bury your gays’, where gay (usually fan favorite) television characters are routinely sacrificed in order to further heteronormative plot narratives – the cited article notes the series The 100, but many other examples are readily available (*cough* Tara in Buffy *cough*).

This trope of queer characters serving merely as storyline fodder, reminds me – like I can forget! – of the recent backlash by the disability community against the film Me Before You, which precariously places a heteronormative relationship within the context of a man who is paralyzed from injury and his quirky female caregiver. And, as you have hopefully already read (and hopefully not seen), the dude ends up dying, because although his heteronormative love enriched his live, it wasn’t enough to save him from his disability, and thus… death??? Just as ‘bury your gays’ gives us, as viewers, a broader range of characters to identify with, only to off them, I want to argue that ‘bury your crips’ works the same way; viewers get characters with disabilities, characters they can identify with and relate to, until they are killed off (Million Dollar Baby, The Sea Inside, etc.).

As a phase 1 judge for Superfest: International Disability Film Festival 2016, I saw enough films to counter that narrative (119 to be exact!); films with complex, leading roles written with or for (or both) people with disabilities. I saw characters that looked like me, and had similar experiences to me, and characters that were nothing like me with whom I also fell in love. And none of them had to die in order for their films to be supremely excellent. The sentiment I am getting at here is that when nobody looks like you in the media you watch, that’s devastating; but, when you finally see ONE character who looks like you, whether that character is gay, or Muslim, or in a wheelchair, or transgender, or black, Latina, Asian, whatever you are, ad then that character is killed? It’s a tragedy. And it makes those real life tragedies even more plausible, because, as the bad trope goes, people like that die on TV or in the movies all the time.

"Yes, and the body has memory. The physical carriage hauls more than its weight. The body is the threshold across which each objectionable call passes into consciousness—all the unintimidated, unblinking, and unflappable resilience does not erase the moments lived through…"

— Claudia Rankine, from Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press, 2014)

A body has memory. Our bodies, however they are marked in society, carry the weight of the legacies of that mark. We remember all the traumas, we feel all the pain. We need to do our best now to make space for those wounds to heal; to make futures we can see ourselves in, futures that have people who look like us in them. This means telling stories of people who are gay, who are transgender, who have disabilities, who have dark skin. This means making characters who are different, who survive, who thrive and love. This means making real and good representations, and allowing the people you are representing to tell their stories, too.

In thinking about how to incorporate diversity into representations in the media, I really appreciate this article by Australian athlete, advocate, and blogger Robyn Lambird, expressing the necessity for better representations of people with disabilities. “Through accurate and expansive media representation, we can normalise disability, shift the negative attitude surrounding it, and highlight the issues that the disabled community face. Through this, we can create a more understanding society that is open to beneficial change.” This call is applicable to more than just disability, but to all non-normative identities as well; when we are better represented, we are better understood, and it is harder to justify violences, big or small, against us. To conclude, here is a statement of solidarity from the late visionary, Mark Aguhar:

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Cross-Post: Interview with Superfest Coordinator Emily Smith Beitiks (Superfest: International Disability Film Festival)

Visitor — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 20:43:36 +0000

Associate Director Emily Beitiks talks about Superfest in an interview with Matthew Toffolo for festivalreviews.org.

Superfest: International Disability Film Festival is a showcase of juried films held in the San Francisco Bay Area. For nearly 30 years, this annual competition has celebrated cutting-edge cinema that portrays disability in all its diverse, complex, and empowering facets. We are proud to be the longest running disability film festival in the world.

http://www.superfestfilm.com/

Interview with Emily Smith Beitiks:

Matthew Toffolo: What is your Film Festival succeeding at doing for filmmakers?

Emily Smith Beitiks: Superfest provides an opportunity for filmmakers to tell stories about disability that are more nuanced and complex than what we typically see in Hollywood, unfortunately. We celebrate the work of filmmakers with disability and explore how the insights of living with a disability enrich their work. In addition, we work closely with our filmmakers to help them get their films audio described and captioned. Even though the films are about disability, many filmmakers have never considered the importance of making films accessible to people with disabilities. We coach them on how they can go about this, as it is a mandatory requirement for all films that screen at our festival.

MT: What would you expect to experience if you attend the festival this year (2016)?

EMB: Our 2016 attendees will experience some exceptional films that will push our audiences to reconsider what they know about disability and disabled people worldwide, but there’s much more to Superfest than just watching the films. We deliberately choose to limit our festival to a weekend so that it can serve as a more unified cultural event. From our hilarious emcee Nina G (the world’s best female, stuttering comedian) to our rich panels with filmmakers to our event party, Superfest allows our attendees to come together as a community to celebrate how disability enriches the arts. This year is the 30th anniversary of our festival, so we’re working even harder to make this our best year yet.

MT: What are the qualifications for the selected films?

EMB: Most importantly, we seek films that avoid the common but problematic tropes of disability. For example, we’re looking for films that neither patronize nor deify people with disabilities, that avoid stereotypes to go beyond disabled people as victims or villains. We get a lot of submissions that the disability community calls “inspiration porn.” These films look at the stories of individual disabled people while they do things like climbing Mt Everest or biking across continents to show what they can do in spite of their disabilities, never addressing the discrimination people with disabilities face nor questioning why a disabled person should have to do such herculean tasks in order to prove their social worth. Those get rejected real fast.

Read the rest of the interview on Festival Reviews here....

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Introducing Superfest 2016

Visitor — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 23:48:15 +0000

We're gearing up for another Superfest: International Disability Festival! This year marks our 30th anniversary so all of us at the Longmore Institute and our co-host organization, the SF LightHouse for the Blind and Vision Impaired, are feeling the pressure to make it our best year yet. The longest running festival of its kind, Superfest celebrates disability as a creative force in cutting-edge cinema. While you still have to wait until October for Superfest 30, you need not wait to see this year's poster...Ta Da!!!! We partnered with The Arc San Francisco, which asked their artists, all people with developmental or intellectual disabilities, to generate artwork while considering the phrases 'disability' and 'films' for inspiration. With so many enticing submissions, it was a tough decision, but we chose artist Tatyana Boyko's brightly colored twist on a director's chair. Graphic designer Alexandra Soiseth added the text details. We can't wait to show off this dynamic piece as we lead up to the festival, and we'll also share some of the runner ups in the months to come.

It's never too early to mark your calendar for this year's two-day event on Saturday, Oct 22 at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life in Berkeley and Sunday, Oct. 23 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. With double the submissions from 2015, including entries from 18 countries, we're on track for an impressive and diverse line-up. You won't want to miss Superfest's 30th birthday bash!

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