Australia's only disability film festival, The Other Film Festival, opens tomorrow and will run through until this Sunday at Melbourne's Art House.
The festival - which lists its goal as "changing how everyone thinks about disability" - was conceived in 2004 and has been showing biannually ever since. It celebrates the stories of those perceived to be 'disabled', with a five-day program of films, documentaries, workshops and forums that seek to entertain, inspire and create dialogue about disability.
Several full-length and short features will be shown over the course of the festival, including Warrior Champions, a documentary centred around a group of severely wounded American soldiers attempting to turn the horrific effects of war into Olympic dreams and Aphasia,a 40-minute film about the life of actor Carl McIntyre, who survived a massive stroke in 2005 only to lose his ability to read, write and speak.
Disabled audiences are catered to at The Other Film Festival, which allows Assistance Dogs in all areas of the festival and offers water bowls for the canine companions. All films will be captioned and Audio Describers – which utilise a small radio receiver to describe the visual aspects of films during breaks in dialogue - will be available for all blind or vision impaired patrons. Auslan interpreters will be available for all spoken events (such as speeches and workshops) and to facilitate conversation between hearing and deaf attendees.
