Born Freak, Annie Dearest, Kiss My Wheels and 10 other Outstanding Films Win International Superfest 2003
There was exceptionally fierce competition for recognition in this year's international disability film festival, Superfest, consisting of more than 60 entries from Canada, Israel, Europe and throughout the U.S. Festival Committee members of the Corporation on Disabilities and Telecommunication (CDT), the Berkeley based organizer of the annual festival, stated that awards decisions were more difficult than usual due to the high quality of the finalists.
"This year, we saw some amazing originality from new artists, as well as some career highs from disability arts producers we have worked with in the past," stated Liane Yasumoto, Executive Director of CDT. Pamela Walker, a founder of the Northern branch of CDT, added, "It is great to see so many cutting edge views of disability culture and disability history coming forward and I wish we could recognize them all."
If there is a common denominator among the 13 winning films, perhaps it is telling an old story from a fresh point of view. Whether taking a look back at how disabled performers were paraded in freak shows, satirizing how Helen Keller might have learned to communicate, getting beneath the surface glitter and clichés of wheelchair sports, capturing the brutal essence of past and present discrimination, or challenging researchers to work more closely with disabled persons, these films all approach their subjects with a refreshingly candid vision.
The Winners
The following films were featured in Superfest's annual weekend showcase, June 7-8, at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley:
Best of Festival: Born Freak
British actor Mat Fraser takes us on an imaginative historical journey, exploring how and why disabled performers like himself used to survive through employment in freak shows, traveling in carnivals across the UK and USA. This production does not pretend to be a comprehensive, scholarly look at the topic, but is rather an artist's view from the inside out, teasing the story forward. (Producer/Contact: Paul Sapin, email sapin@xray,v,net.com)
Spirit Award and Award of Excellence: Annie Dearest
Deaf performance artist/director Terry Galloway and her creative team take about 9 minutes to demolish the myth of the sainted relationship between Helen Keller and teacher Annie Sullivan; a myth that Galloway feels has inspired but intimidated generations of deaf and hard of hearing children who were force-fed The Miracle Worker. This short parody takes a humorous look at how Keller may have been taught by a not so patient Sullivan. (Producer: Diane Wilkins, Contact, email TLGalloway@aol.com)
Award of Excellence: Kiss My Wheels
An under-funded coed, junior wheelchair basketball team in a poverty stricken area of New Mexico soak you in their sweat, tears, fears, wins, and losses, ultimately exposing their gritty grasp on what's important in life. The scene-stealers are an immigrant girl from India and a boy from a local reservation-Hollywood would have submerged it in sentiment-this one stays real all the way. (Producer: Miguel Grunstein, Contact: Fanlight Productions, email ben@fanlight.com)
Achievement Awards:
The Ecstasy and the Agony
This in-depth British documentary takes the traditional pantheon of the rehabilitation establishment-the doctors, researchers and nonprofit organizations-and turns it on its head, as a young man with Parkinson's insists that his life improve today, not in some future cycle of grants. By accident, Tim, a film stuntman, has found that the street drug, ecstasy, relieves his symptoms and this discovery "somersaults" him to the forefront of research efforts to unravel the cause and effects of the condition. (Producer: Jemima Harrison, Contact: Stella Williams, email stella.Williams@carltontv.co.uk)
On a Roll
For the last decade, U.S. disability community leaders from politicians to advocates have found themselves scrutinized by a relentless talk radio host, Greg Smith. Born disabled and black in the deep South, Smith knows a lot about discrimination and this video portrait takes a close and patient look at the daily hurdles and long distance challenges he deals with as a media professional, disability activist and father. (Producer/Contact: Joanne Caputo, email jojobean@infinet.com)
We Watch the City: Stories in the Shadow of 9/11
In the media bath following 9/11, we all heard one or two stories about blind men and their dogs trudging down the endless staircases of the World Trade Center, but for the most part how people with disabilities survived the dangers and chaos of that day has remained unknown. This video introduces us to members of a group of more than 100 developmentally disabled New Yorkers who were employed at the WTC and lets them tell their stories of what happened. (Producer/Contact: Jerry Smith, email smith405@umn.edu)
Merit Awards:
World without Bodies
U.S. film producers David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder take on the Herculean assignment of explaining in a little over half an hour how the machinery of the Holocaust came to be tested on an estimated 240,000 children and adults with disabilities in Nazi Germany. Armed only with a handheld camera and their professorial expertise of crunching facts and figures into narrative, they visit one of the remaining "killing institutions" with a German disability advocate to chronicle the least remembered Holocaust victims. (Producer/Contact: Sharon Snyder, email ssnyder@uic.edu)
In Cuba, Disabled
In this short, pilot documentary, Victor Pineda revisits the island from a wheelchair to investigate to what degree Cuba incorporates disabled Cubans. He explores this issue through interviews with policy makers, service providers, disabled people and "on the street" conversations, all the while illustrating the physical barriers he encounters in his chair. (Producer/Contact: Victor Pineda, email VikPineda@yahoo.com)
Men on Wheels
This revealing documentary takes viewers into the lives of two Israeli men with service-related disabilities, their families and their involvement in the world of international wheelchair dance competitions. Among the strongest segments are the scenes discussing sexuality and one where a young daughter recounts with painful honesty how schoolchildren taunt her about her parents' disabilities. (Producer: Yahaly Gat, Contact: Muse Productions, email fg_prod@netvision.net.il)
OCD: the War Inside
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder may be one of the least understood disabilities and this Canadian television documentary explores its growing impact in detail through interviews with several children, young people and adults with OCD living in Toronto. The interviewer also had OCD and perhaps this is why he gains the confidence of the interviewees, concentrating more on how they are coping and setting goals, than on the pros and cons of various treatments. (Producer: Silva Basmajian, contact Fanlight Productions, email kelli@fanlight.com)
The Perfect Flaw
David Roche might be the only disabled comedian ever invited to perform at the White House and this video documents his long and potholed road to that and a myriad of other achievements. Born with facial disfigurement, but never doubting his right to be out and about in the world, Roche had to devise creative strategies to reach potential friends, lovers, employers and ultimately, his audience. He chose humor as his primary weapon and see how disarming it can be. (Producer/Contact: Mike Grundman, email mikegrundman999@hotmail.com)
Outstanding Promotional Media Awards
Dan
This short and exuberant commercial by Cingular Wireless zeroes in on the expressionist canvasses painted by Dan Keplinger, using a brush attached to his headgear. (Keplinger is also the subject of a full length Academy Award winning documentary, King Gimp.) (Commercial is not for purchase or rent)
Hose, Cards and Water Balloons
Three crisp and wry Public Service Announcements produced for the Berkeley Center for Independent Living to increase recruitment of attendants and awareness about attendant work. Prepare to howl. (Producer: Mark Conly; Contact Jacqueline Garrett, email jgarrett@cilberkeley.org)
Information about Superfest is available via email: Superfest@aol.com
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