10 Things You'll Find at Superfest 2023 that You Won't Find Anywhere Else
It’s almost Superfest season, so mark your calendars for October 19th-22nd 2023 and check out the descriptions below! This year we’ll once again host our festival in a hybrid format with in person access in the San Francisco Bay Area and digital access on Eventive.
For more details about passes, opportunities for community conversations, and how it will all work, visit superfestfilm.com. Get your passes now!
1. PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AS MAIN CHARACTERS
Take Me Home
After their mother’s death, a cognitively disabled woman and her estranged sister must learn to communicate in order to move forward.
2. DISABILITY FRIENDSHIPS/RELATIONSHIPS
Of Kisses and Capes
Isi and Finn are planning their first time. This proves to be a difficult endeavor when their insecurities and lack of communication almost jeopardize their relationship.
3. PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES WHO ARE ALSO QUEER AND/OR PEOPLE OF COLOR
As You Are
When an interabled queer couple spends the night together for the first time, they must confront their complex relationships with desire, sexuality, bodily autonomy, and what it means truly to love another person.
4. DISABILITY AND ACCESS AS A CREATIVE FORCE
Abi Palmer Invents the Weather (Light)
A literal and abstract take on the spring season, Abi Palmer documents translating spring into a cat-accessible format for her indoor cats. The film’s voiceover, written and narrated by Palmer, serves as a love letter to Palmer’s cats and the climate, culminating in a playful meditation on disability, climate, and life that can’t talk back. "Light" is the third film in the series "Abi Palmer invents the Weather,” chronicling Palmer’s year-long process of performing the outside world for her indoor cats.
The Beauty of Being Deaf
Artist, director, and author Chella Man presents a meditation on Deaf identity and language—underwater.
5. INTERDEPENDENCE (AS CONTRASTED TO INDEPENDENCE)
Chronic
Following a traumatic brain injury, a young woman's recovery is interrupted when her friends insist she come out for a birthday party. After reinjuring herself, she takes the first step in her new life by joining a chronic pain support group.
We Make Film
Set across three cities in India, We Make Film explores the creative journeys of d/Deaf and disabled filmmakers Debopriya, Mijo and Anuja. While some battles against inaccessability are won, sometimes they must give up dreams altogether due to inaccessible environments, exclusionary production practices, or barriers to film education. While documenting their stories, Shweta too begins to reflect on her privileges and revisits the lifelong creative collaborations she has had with her disabled father. We Make Film presents the intersection of these four filmmakers’ experiences through a documentary that rethinks accessibility, ally-ship, and collaboration in filmmaking today, and dreams of an inclusive creative future for all of us.
6. PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES FACING DIFFICULT REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS, SUCH AS DISCRIMINATION
Me If I Were A Woman
Juliette, a 19-year-old with Down syndrome, is experiencing her first love, but her romance is quickly upended when Juliette is pressured by her mother and doctors to undergo sterilization surgery because of her disability. She has only a short time to make a decision and make her voice heard.
(Un)fit to Work
A disabled mechanic takes us on a musical journey of 80s disco & ballroom through his imagination after he’s denied access to apply for the job he’s best suited for at his local job center.
7. CHARACTERS/PEOPLE WHOSE IDENTITIES ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE MAIN DRIVING FORCE OR SOURCE OF CONFLICT FOR THE PLOT
Uonted!
Excitement is brewing in a social co-op for a group of disabled people as they debate the destination for their next trip. Tiziano, however, does not want to hear about democratic votes: he wants to go to Cinecittà World, a movie themed amusement park, to visit the old west. What will he invent when he discovers that the attraction is different from how he imagined it?
8. BUT ALSO, DISABILITY AS A CENTRAL SOCIAL ISSUE
Fire Through Dry Grass
On a tiny island in NYC, a group of Black and brown disabled artists fight COVID-19 and the city to protect the lives of 500 vulnerable nursing home residents.
We Care
Annie is surprised to find that her new carer happens to be a man, a manly man, a very manly man. This beautiful and funny piece takes a dark turn with devastating consequences when Annie is let down by the system that is meant to take care of her.
9. PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES' DAY TO DAY LIVES
Invisible World
To apply for an disabled parking placard, a doctor within the state must approve the application. As part of the application, there are six medical conditions which qualify a person for a placard. Many people with disabilities are included in these categories, and many are not. This film is a record of the filmmaker’s introduction to healthcare in the state of Utah. Her processing of the appointment and consequential aftermath as a video object serves as a reclamation and assertion for understanding disability and the physical world otherwise.
10. PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AS DIRECTORS, PRODUCERS, WRITERS, AND ACTORS, TELLING THEIR OWN STORIES OR STORIES THAT ARE MEANINGFUL TO THEM PERSONALLY.
Culicidae
A mosquito’s late night intrusion leads to a life and death struggle.
Whose Voice Is It Anyway
A darkly funny mockumentary about two identically disabled forty-year-old women, Lottie and Charlie, who have athetoid cerebral palsy. Both celebrate their 40th birthday with family and friends—one is given the choice and the ability to communicate, and the other is not.
Get your passes now to attend virtually or in person at: https://www.superfestfilm.com/superfest-2023