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JUST DID IT: ReelAbilities Film Festival kick-off party
The first annual ReelAbilities: Philadelphia Disabilities Film Festival began its week of "films by and about people with disabilities" with an art party and screening of Courtney Bent's Shooting Beauty.
JUST DID IT: ReelAbilities Film Festival kick-off party
The first annual ReelAbilities: Philadelphia Disabilities Film Festival (which we told you about in this week's Agenda section) began its week of “films by and about people with disabilities” at the Painted Bride Art Center yesterday afternoon. The venue was decorated with works by students of Oasis Arts and Education, a Philly-based org dedicated to the cultivation of artistic achievement in people with mental illness or intellectual disabilities.
Guests were treated to a screening of Courtney Bent’s Shooting Beauty, a documentary that chronicles the filmmaker’s relationship with a group of individuals afflicted with varying degrees of cerebral palsy. In the film, Bent is an aspiring fashion photographer who jury-rigs several point-and-shoot cameras for her new friends and asks them to “document their lives in pictures.” Bent discovers that this practice yields critical insight into the lives of people whose identities are too often reduced to their disabilities.
During a post-film discussion, Bent described her subjects as a “vivacious, wonderful group of people.” She explained that photography gave this group a voice to express themselves and, simultaneously, these people “gave [Bent] a voice” by making her “feel confident and loved.” They inspired her to complete the film.
Bent wants her film to generate conversations about the social barriers that constrain people with disabilities. Attendees obliged during the catered reception. One woman spoke about how the film humanized those with disabilities — highlighting issues all people face, including failed relationships and death.
By focusing on the individual lives of people in an underrepresented population, Shooting Beauty is able to capture both the richness and unity of human life. It is an appropriate start to a film festival with an expressed goal “to explore, discuss, embrace and celebrate the diversity of our shared human experience.”
The ReelAbilities: Philadelphia Disabilities Film Festival continues all week throughout the city. For a list of events visit the festival’s website.
(michael.blancato@citypaper.net)
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