Welcome to the international Together! 2023 Disability Film Festival. The Festival has now ended, but event recordings and programme details are available below. You can also see the 2023 Kat Awards winners.
PROGRAMME Click on the links for programme details.
Saturday 2 December
Sunday 3 December
EVENTS
Saturday 2 December 3-4pm: Shadowlight Journeys. Shadowlight Artists Wendy Belcher, Richard Hunt, Danny Smith & Tom Breach from Film Oxford returned to the Together! 2023 Disability Film Festival with their new project, Journeys, on exhibition at Fire Station Oxford. Their films explore diverse themes, including creating an alternative artistic persona, living with grief and loss, the quest for artistic excellence, and the day-to-day challenges of life as an autistic adult. This is an opportunity to meet some of the artists, watch their films, and find out more about how they have developed as an artists’ collective since they began in 2009. On Zoom with British Sign Language interpretation and live captions.
Sunday 3 December 3-4pm: Taking Stock: Disability Film on International Day of Disabled People. The international Together! 2023 Disability Film Festival received more than 1500 entries from around the world, the majority from non-disabled filmmakers. Many films portrayed disability as a tragedy or used other negative stereotyping, with happy endings apparently hard to imagine. Stories were often told through the eyes of non-disabled people, or non-disabled people were the subject of the film rather than the Disabled people they work with or care for. Taking Stock brought together audience members and filmmakers to discuss what needs to change? with British Sign Language interpretation and live captions.
Our live events were supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery. https://filmlondon.org.uk/film-hub-london
More about us: We screen films by Deaf/Disabled filmmakers, and films about Disability or with a strong central Deaf/Disabled character. Most of the films we screen will have been completed in the last 12-18 months, and many are premieres. Filmmakers do not need to identify as disabled themselves if Disabled people or Disability are the subject of the film; Deaf/Disabled filmmakers can submit work on any subject. Our priority is to provide a platform for strong storytelling, highlighting the lived experiences of Deaf/Disabled people from diverse backgrounds, and the talents of emerging and mid-career Deaf/Disabled filmmakers. Many of our films are world or international premieres, and go on to festivals worldwide. We are IMDb accredited.
We use our own ‘D’ rating system – one D each for a Deaf/Disabled (self-defined) person generating the film’s content, taking overall lead in making the film, and being the focus or star(s) of the film, working with or without support.
AWARDS We give Kat Awards for the best films These are named in honour of the late artist and filmmaker Katherine Araniello.
Follow this link for a history of Together! 2012 CIC’s annual international Disability Film Festival.
