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It’s been a fantastic, productive summer already. I’ve had the distinct honor to get to teach at VSA TX’s Side By Side Filmmakers internship program. We had 15 teen and young adult interns with disabilities and three teachers, and we’ve turned it into a don’t-miss event. Johnny Villareal, who runs The Edge of Imagination Station, worked with his interns on a stop motion animation piece. Aaron Weiss of One Story Productions and Stephen Sprague worked on a short documentary film. And I, from StoryMinders, created a comedy-horror piece with my interns. That’s right, this would be my second film to work on with young adults with disabilities that’s a comedy-horror. This one, however, does not involve cats. Can you believe I was involved in a film without cats? You just never know. Either way, the interns themselves and their creative work are incredibly delightful.
Because the interns have disabilities, we started off the week by mentioning a few accomplished disabled filmmakers. After all, this isn’t summer camp. An internship is about job training. Because people with disabilities of all ages are typically left out of training and performance opportunities, I wanted to let them know they’ve got some great mentors to look toward. I mentioned just a few: Jenni Gold of “CinemAbility,” Niko von Glasow of “NoBody’s Perfect,” and Jade Bryan of “The Shattered Mind.” Also, in case you didn’t know, moving pictures? Invented by a guy with disabilities from severe TBI. Eadweard Muybridge, after developing double vision, an extreme personality change, and other effects of brain injury went on to invent the electronic shutter, capture horses running and present them in “moving pictures,” and create the zoopraxiscope, a movie presentation technology that came even before we had film for photographs and movies. This was in the late 1800s. Yes, go team disability! Go, go, go!
It’s not important to me what labels people use for themselves or how much of a part disability plays in their lives or identities. What’s important to me is that we don’t hide disability from our cultures’ narratives. When you look up Muybridge’s work, for example, you can visit many prestigious sites that never mention his disabilities. Sigh. But anyway, me and Edward. We both became filmmakers after TBI. Very cool. Now let’s see the very fine work developed by our interns, many of whom had not worked in film before!
Please come to the Side By Side Filmmakers Showcase to see the fine work these young interns developed in only two–that’s right TWO–weeks. We’ll also be offering the Austin premiere of Joshua Tate’s award-winning movie, Love Land.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
2:00-5:00 pm
Marchesa Hall and Theatre
6226 Middle Fiskville Rd.
Austin, TX 78752
FREE! No reservations required.
Closed Captioning, ASL interpretation, and Audio Description are provided in this physically accessible space.
For more info, please contact info@vsatx.org or 512-454-9912.
The internship was sponsored by the Texas Commission on the Arts.
