Listen to this post:
Reframe & Refresh is a monthly webinar series for the education and filmmaking community to have refreshing conversations that reframe our perspectives. In my mind, it’s been the most exciting project to come out of New Day Films since I joined, and it’s my great honor that I got to be part of one on April 27th. And I had every intention of publishing this post before April 27th but simply could not get everything in place to do that! Rather than my intended post to invite you to register and join, I am happy I can share the recording of the event and invite you to watch that at your convenience.
Disability in the Arts
Thursday April 27 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET
The conversation “Disability in the Arts” was part of our ongoing Reframe & Refresh series. The plan was to discuss how we can improve accessibility and inclusion for d/Deaf and disabled people in the arts, and I’m happy to say we did that by getting to focus a lot on ableism, disability justice practices, and solidarity.
Panelists: Nomy Lamm, filmmaker behind Loving With Three Hearts / Amar Con Tres Corazones and Creative Director of Sins Invalid, a disability justice based performance project. Maria Palacios, a performer with Sins Invalid and absolute Goddess on Wheels. Victor Ilyukhin, director of Two and Twenty Troubles, a film about performers with disabilities trying to make it in New York City. Alex Locust, “glamputee,” educator, and artist who I personally first met through Superfest. Shoutout to Superfest! My film is Who Am I To Stop It, and I moderated the one-hour panel.
This event was not only for filmmakers and educators, which is why I post the recording here. And please check out the films! Educators and community organizations can purchase them through New Day Films. If you’re not with a school or organization, and you have a public library card, check if the films are available at your library streaming or on DVD!
The live event had Zoom auto-captions, and you can access the auto-captions for the recording on New Day Film’s YouTube channel. We played a couple trailers during the event that had real closed captions on.
At New Day Films, we’re always improving accessibility for our filmmaker members and for our audiences and website visitors. Work like that should go alongside disabled-made films and films featuring d/Deaf and disabled people telling their own stories without first being filtered through non-disabled people’s words. I feel like the panelists and the films represented on April 27th really do that. And a couple small dogs made appearances, which I interrupted the entire flow of conversation to announce each time because I find the sudden and unexpected appearance of small dogs on Zoom calls to be very important to acknowledge. This is both for blind and low-vision access and accessibility for those, like me, who have an instant lowering of anxiety in the presence of small dog, over Zoom, in-person, or however you can get one.