While there is still much work to be done, recent years have seen a significant effort in the campaign for a more original portrayal of disability in film and television.
However, while there has been a growing interest in how disability is depicted or, unfortunately, excluded too much from the finished product, less attention has been paid to a serious barrier to accessibility affecting film creators with disabilities at the very core of the industry. Festivals are the lifeblood of the business, providing aspiring filmmakers and those already in Hollywood’s walled gardens with invaluable networking opportunities and career progression.
Earlier this month, a collective consisting of FWD-Doc (Filmmakers with Disabilities), the Film Event Accessibility Working Group, and the Film Festival Alliance released their “Accessibility Scorecard Impact Report. “The report analyzed the accessibility insights of 75 film festivals and events around the world, taking into account the delights of 353 respondents. The online questionnaire was first introduced in July 2022 and goes beyond the undeniable visual experience to also include the red carpet, stage, networking, and similar events.
Among the key figures from the Accessibility Scorecard Impact Report is that 75% of other people with disabilities surveyed reported some form of inaccessibility in their experience at the film festival. 46% considered that the accessibility of the places was not what should be reported on the occasion. website, 41% indicated that there was no seating availability procedure, 47% of attendees with disabilities felt that festival volunteers were not trained on access functions, while 60% said that the panels and Q&A sessions they attended were not moderated in an available manner. .
Overall, five film events out of a total of 75 scored above average. These include the Superfest Disability Film Festival, the BlackStar Film Festival, the Women of Color International Queer Film Festival, the Access:Horror Film Festival, and the New Orleans Film Festival. Film Festival.
Cassidy Dimon, founder of the Film Accessibility Working Group, which counts ReelAbilities New York and the Sundance Institute among its members, says in an email interview: “When filmmakers don’t have access to their own screenings and Q&As, they can’t lay the groundwork, many filmmakers have to continue their careers and introduce others in the industry to whom their films are worth engaging.
And he continues: “Many primary festivals are also markets, it is a position for filmmakers to work. This is where the doors open to festival funders, vendors, and other programmers. When filmmakers are denied access to those festivals because of their inaccessibility, they are similarly denied access to festivals. Similarly, the inaccessibility of festivals prevents film critics, publicists, and other members of the industry with disabilities from doing their jobs.
This is a position strongly echoed by Amanda Upson, interim director of FWD-Doc:
“Filmmakers want festivals to advance their careers. Festivals offer opportunities for training, professional development, mentorship, networking, exhibitions, funding, and more,” says Upson.
“If you work in the entertainment industry, you have to attend film festivals and events for the same reason you would move to CES or AWS if you work in lead generation or cloud computing. “
Of course, those barriers that are observed from the grassroots are directly similar to the representation of disability on the screen, which, without a voice with a disability in the room, runs the risk of being inauthentic or being completely excluded. The indictment of the film industry, as Upson points out, isn’t just about cultural marginalization, which is bad enough, but it has serious monetary implications.
“The long-term result for the industry is that it will be denied the entirety of the $13 trillion in revenue available worldwide through the disability community,” says Upson.
“Just ask studios about ‘inspiring’ movies that underperform the disability. Recently, the president of a studio asked me why some of his films about disability had not been screened. This was because they did not have leaders with disabilities who could simply tell stories of others. people with disabilities or commercialize them. The industry is constantly looking for new and new perspectives; Filmmakers with disabilities possess this, as well as tangible skills gained from being forced to lead the way and forge a path where there were none before.
“Without representation, stories about disability are told, marketed, and distributed through others who have lived through the experience of disability, leading to inauthentic representation and often exploitation,” Dimon says.
“If we’re not out there advocating for more funding, providing original stories, or programming them, we’re denying a key demographic a seat at the table. As we’ve learned recently over the years from other DEIA projects (which occasionally put Your Mind is A out of the picture), this lack of representation at each and every step of the procedure means we can’t stand up for what we want or the stories we want to tell. “
Jim LeBrecht, co-director and co-producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary Crip Camp and co-founder of FWD-Doc and the 1in4 coalition, says that films adapted to people with disabilities have an exclusive look and feel.
“I think those who have had an experience with one or more disabilities are natural problem solvers,” LeBrecht says.
“We live in a world built with the mentality of not waiting for or missing each other. To survive, we expand our artistic skills and approaches in our daily lives, and this experience is rooted in our art. We are motivated by other people who value hard work. – the profits we have made.
He continues: “When I think of documentary filmmakers like Reid Davenport and his film I Didn’t See You There or Alison O’Daniel and her film The Tuba Thieves, I know that I’ve witnessed extraordinarily interesting films that would or could simply be created through a non-disabled filmmaker simply through the distinctive trait of their lived experiences.
“For me and many others, disability is part of our culture. It is our common experience that explodes with the unique variation of each one on a theme of life, art and reflection. In the words of former wonderful artist Neil Marcus, “disability is an art, an inventive way of living. “Preventing anyone from having access to us and our art is a failure. The result of this elimination, of this exclusion, is that it is incumbent upon all of us to think and to ourselves. “
As part of its recommendations to make film festivals and events more accessible, the coalition recommends a commitment to measurable accessibility goals, as well as a committed budget allocation.
These goals include live captioning for panels and Q&A, offering low-sensory spaces, captioning for films, offering American Sign Language (ASL) or an applicable sign language interpreter when applicable, accessibility data that is easy to locate on festival websites, and making sure event staff are aware of advertised access.
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