Unique perspectives
Festival features films by and about the disabled
FFWD - October 17, 2002

PICTURE THIS FILM FESTIVAL
October 17 to 19
Fort Calgary

BRAD E SIMKULET

We all know the traditional cinematic images of the disabled. Either they're portrayed as tragic, benevolent simpletons who just want to be loved, or tenacious heroes who battle society and their disability to achieve a simple level of dignity.

In the real world, however, people with disabilities have myriad life experiences that have nothing to do with Hollywood convention. The disabled are, after all, real people with real problems, and their stories run the gamut from the mundane to the fantastic.

Calgary's second annual Picture this... Film Festival, initiated and supported by the Calgary Scope Society, is dedicated to providing a venue for these stories. From October 17 to 19 at Fort Calgary, more than 70 films from the United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, the United States and Canada will be shown, either on the big screen in the 1888 Barracks Building or in one of the festival's small viewing centers.

"People can watch any of the entries they want in private booths with headphones," says festival director Vern Reynolds-Braun. "We had line-ups last year in four booths where people were waiting to get in. We can't play all the films on the large screen, so they're available through the entire festival this way."

The popularity of the small viewing centers has prompted the festival to add two extra booths this year, but the festival's award?winners and nominees will all be shown on the big screen.

The U.K. film, The Alien Who Lived in the Sheds, by wheelchairbound filmmaker Nabil Shagan is just one of these? the winner for best documentary in two categories, it's also in the running for the best of the festival award.

"It's about learning, about alienation, about how people alienate each other because of differences," says Reynolds-Braun.

Shagan combines his obsession with UFOs with his strange, physically impossible search for an alien that is rumored to be living in a shed in the forests of southern England. He uses his quest as a metaphor for his own disability and the feelings of isolation it creates. It is one of the finest films at the festival-documentary or otherwise.

Animated, dramatic and educational films have healthy representation at Picture this..., and range from John Callahan's hilarious cartoon QUADS to the Finnish love story My Darling and the educational Kidability Two. Reynolds-Braun's personal recommendation, however, goes to the Australian short film Back Talk, which is about a quadriplegic who calls himself Wheelchair Bob.

"It's a comedy and it's really in your face," he says. "They're making humorous situations out of the disability rather than the usual climb-every-mountain story or the poor-little-pitiful-me story. It's about people just living life. "

As with many festivals, the ancillary events at Picture this... are as much a draw as the films themselves. Although most of the artists whose films are screening at the festival are unable to afford the trip to Calgary, the festival, with assistance from the Calgary Foundation, was able to put together The Local Works panel, an impressive group that includes a number of local filmmakers and one of the producers of CBC's Moving On, a program that will also be filming the festival for a spot on the show.

"CBC's going to be shooting for about three days at our festival," Reynolds?Braun says proudly. "They're going to do a major feature on us."

National exposure and strong local support have made him decidedly optimistic about the festival's prospects for growth.

"I think sometimes that if an idea, on its own, has some merit, it can just tend to grow, that people will just nod their heads and say, 'That's a good idea."'

As Canada's only film festival dedicated to films and videos by and about persons with disabilities, Picture this... consistently attracts filmmakers from around the world, and that should keep it in business for years to come.

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