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Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project is thrilled to announce a free Film & Freedom Academy tailored for LBTQIA+ BIPOC with communication disabilities. The workshop will be onsite November 8-11, 2024 in San Francisco.

Following the leadership of Sins Invalid, QWOCMAP uses the term “communication disabilities” to include anything that disrupts someone’s ability to communicate with others. This includes physical impairments, people who belong to a sensory minority, people with emotional disabilities, people with cognitive challenges, and people with chronic or severe illness, born Deaf, or age-related hearing loss; neurodivergent; on the spectrum; with stutters or Tourette’s; or more!

In fours days, participants will learn to create, write, direct, and edit a short film, under 5 minutes. This free intensive workshop demystifies filmmaking through hands-on exercises and interactive technical lectures in a highly creative, collaborative, and supportive environment. Each film project will be paired with a Film Mentor for support and coaching for the duration of the workshop. The entire process makes filmmaking completely doable and fun!

Completed films will world premiere in June 2025 at QWOCMAP’s 21st annual International Queer Women of Color Film Festival in San Francisco.

You can fill out an online application or download a Word document application and email it. All the info is on their site.

The workshops will have ASL interpretation, CART, materials provided ahead of time through their screen reader-accessible online learning platform, printouts, microphones and speakers, and be a wheelchair-accessible, fragrance-free space. They’ll provide some meals and snacks with indoor and outdoor eating spaces. There’s a lot more accessibility info on the registration info page.

Go to their website to register for the workshop, and please spread the word.