ReelAbilities is the United States' largest film festival dedicated to showcasing films by, or about, people with disabilities. It was founded by JCC Manhattan in New York City in 2007.
ReelAbilities is the United States' largest film festival dedicated to showcasing films by, or about, people with disabilities. It was founded by JCC Manhattan in New York City in 2007.
The Festival's Co-directors are Isaac Zablocki and Ravit Turjeman. ReelAbilities strives to make the festival as fully accessible as possible. In 2012, it screened films in 23 locations in all five of New York City's boroughs. All films screened by the Festival are captioned. It is also "the only festival in New York that prints film programs in Braille and features audio descriptions for the blind". [1]
In March 2015, the NY edition of the festival opened on the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum and was featured for 7 days in 37 venues throughout the greater NY metropolitan area.
ReelAbilities is now a touring film festival throughout the United States. Cities on its itinerary include: [2]
Disabilities of any kind are explored in the films in the ReelAbilities Film Festival programming. In 2012, films featured included disabilities such as autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, blindness and mental health. [3] ReelAbilities screens films from the United States as well as international films, including from countries such as Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
According to Festival Director Isaac Zablocki, most of the films originate outside the United States:
...specifically in Europe, where there's traditionally a lot of smaller films and access to government funds. Lots of these films are amazing, and, best of all, we get to show premieres. Many of the films are embraced outside of the U.S., but we're often the first or only American festival to show these movies. [1]
Jeff Remz, a communications and marketing manager of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, helped sponsor ReelAbilities in Boston in 2012. Remz says, "Disabilities don’t know boundaries by way of country, ethnicity, religion, or community." [4]
Manhattan is a 1979 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen and produced by Charles H. Joffe from a screenplay written by Allen and Marshall Brickman. Allen co-stars as a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer who dates a 17-year-old girl but falls in love with his best friend's mistress. Meryl Streep and Anne Byrne also star.
Lachi is a singer songwriter, composer, producer, actress, author, disability advocate and cultural activist based in New York City. Lachi's music is often described as Pop or EDM. Lachi is also the founder of RAMPD.
Blue Movie is a 1969 American erotic film written, produced and directed by Andy Warhol. It is the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States, and is regarded as a seminal film in the Golden Age of Porn. It helped inaugurate the "porno chic" phenomenon, in which porn was publicly discussed by celebrities and taken seriously by film critics, in modern American culture, and later, in many other countries throughout the world. According to Warhol, Blue Movie was a major influence in the making of Last Tango in Paris, an internationally controversial erotic drama film starring Marlon Brando and released a few years after Blue Movie was made. Viva and Louis Waldon, playing themselves, starred in Blue Movie.
Danny Woodburn is an American actor, comedian, and activist for the disability rights movement linked to his dwarfism.
A multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens within a single complex. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where the existing auditoriums are split into smaller ones, or more auditoriums are added in an extension or expansion of the building. The largest of these complexes can sit thousands of people and are sometimes referred to as a megaplex.
David Krakauer is an American clarinetist who performs klezmer, jazz, classical music, and avant-garde improvisation.
Reel Affirmations (RA) is a non-profit, all-volunteer LGBT film festival in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1991 and held every year in mid-October, as of 2011 Reel Affirmations was one of the largest LGBT film festivals in the United States. Baltimore's Gay Life newspaper called it "one of the top three films festivals for the entire LGBT community." A 2007 guidebook claims it was one of the largest LGBT film festivals in the world. A listing of LGBT film festivals claims it is the largest all-volunteer film festival in the world.
Justin Edgar is a British film director, screenwriter and producer.
The Gay Marriage Thing is a 2005 documentary film directed by Stephanie Higgins, who attended the Emerson College film school graduate program. The film follows the heated debate over same-sex marriage in Massachusetts in 2004 through the perspective of a lesbian couple who wishes to legally marry, as that state became the first in the U.S. to grant same-sex marriages.
Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement is a 2009 American documentary film directed and produced by Susan Muska and Gréta Ólafsdóttir for their company Bless Bless Productions, in association with Sundance Channel. The film tells the story of the long-term lesbian relationship between Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer, including their respective childhoods, their meeting in 1963, their lives and careers in New York City, Thea's diagnosis with multiple sclerosis and Edie's care for her partner, and their wedding in Toronto, Canada, in May 2007, because gay marriage was not then legal in their home state of New York.
Disability in the arts is an aspect within various arts disciplines of inclusive practices involving disability. It manifests itself in the output and mission of some stage and modern dance performing-arts companies, and as the subject matter of individual works of art, such as the work of specific painters and those who draw.
The Boston Jewish Film Festival (BJFF) is an annual film festival that screens the best contemporary films on Jewish themes from around the world. The festival presents features, shorts, documentaries, and conversations with visiting artists in order to explore the Jewish identity, the current Jewish experience and the richness of Jewish culture in relation to a diverse modern world.
The Broken Tower is a 2011 American biographical drama film directed, written, produced, edited by and starring James Franco. The film was made by Franco as his master's thesis for his MFA in filmmaking from New York University. The film is about American poet Hart Crane. Franco appears in the starring role as Crane along with Michael Shannon as one of Crane's lovers. The Broken Tower made its world premiere in April 2011 at Boston College. It was shown at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF) in June 2011. It was released to theatres in the United States on April 27, 2012, and released on DVD in 2012. The film includes the recitation by Franco of several of Crane's poems both as voice-over additions to the film, as well as actual readings of several poems rendered by Franco as portraying Crane himself.
You've Been Trumped is a 2011 documentary by British filmmaker Anthony Baxter. The film documents the construction of a luxury golf course on a beach in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, by developer Donald Trump and the subsequent struggles between the locals, Donald Trump, and Scottish legal and governmental authorities.
Our Nixon is an all-archival documentary providing a view of the Nixon presidency through the use of Super-8 format home movies filmed by top Nixon aides H.R. Haldeman, Dwight Chapin and John Ehrlichman, combined with other historical material such as interviews, oral histories and news clips. It was directed by Penny Lane.
Anita Altman is an American social entrepreneur and city planner. She is the co-founder of ReelAbilities, America's largest film festival screening films by, or about, people with disabilities. Altman is an active Jewish feminist, and a member of New York's B’Nai Jeshrun synagogue. She is the mother of Sascha Altman DuBrul, co-founder of the Icarus Project.
Departures is a 2011 Turkish short film directed by Ali Y. Akarçeşme. The film is twelve minutes long and is about immigration to the United States from Turkey. In order to raise funds for the film, Akarçeşme held a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $2,665. Departures was named Best Drama at the Brownfish Short Film Festival in New York City in 2011. And he won the Best Director Award at NY ITN Distribution Film Festival. These awards were the first Akarçeşme received while living in the United States. In 2012, the film was screened at New York's Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival and the Love Your Shorts Film Festival and competed in the Boston Turkish Film Festival. The film also had official selections in various festivals such as NY Soho International, New Hope, Spain's Renderyard, Buffalo Niagara, NJ's Garden State and more.
Jason DaSilva is a director, producer, writer and disability rights activist best known for the Emmy Award-winning documentary, When I Walk. The Emmy award-winning film follows his diagnosis of primary progressive multiple sclerosis for seven years as he progresses from cane, to walker, to wheelchair. He is also the founder of the non-profit organization AXS Lab and of AXS Map, a crowd sourced Google map based platform which rates the accessibility of businesses.
Zeno Mountain Farm is a non-profit, year round organization that hosts camps for people with and without disabilities. The flagship camp of Zeno Mountain Farm is held in Bristol, Vermont, during July. Satellite camps are held in Los Angeles and Jensen Beach. In total the camp is in session for 120 days a year. Each camp session has a specific goal ranging from putting on a play to participating in athletic events. The camp is run entirely by donations and volunteers, allowing for all campers to attend without cost. Recently the organization has produced films projects utilizing people with disabilities both on-screen and behind the scenes, including the feature Best Summer Ever, which premiered at the 2020 South by Southwest Film Festival.
Barry Katz is a television producer, film producer and talent manager. He was the owner and founder of the Boston Comedy Club in New York City and helped launch the careers of many successful comedians, including Bill Burr, Dane Cook, Louis C.K., Bert Kreischer, Wanda Sykes, Dave Chappelle, Whitney Cummings, as well as Saturday Night Live alumni Jay Mohr, Jim Breuer, Darrell Hammond and Tracy Morgan.
