SUPERFEST International Disability Film Festival June 2 & 3 2007

SUPERFEST XXVII June 2 and 3, 2007 Film Schedule Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston St., Berkeley, California SUPERFEST International Disability Film Festival is presented by CDT Culture!Disability!Talent!. Tickets are $5-$20/day sliding scale and will only be sold at the door. On Sat., June 3, screenings will be followed by a free “Meet the Makers” Reception and Awards Event (6-9 p.m.) EVENT NOTES: The venue is wheelchair accessible. Please refrain from wearing perfume or other scented products. The films will be audio described. Braille and large print screening schedules will be provided at the event. American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters will be provided at the reception and awards event. Captioned films have a [C] after the description. Saturday, June 2, 12:00-5 p.m 12:00 The Rest of My Life: Stories of Trauma Survivors (25 min.) Achievement Award [U.S.] Producer: Gabriel Ledger A gripping look at the lives of a Chippewa sculptor who painstakingly relearns his craft after a brutal hate crime, and a yoga teacher who undergoes a long recovery from brain surgery after a car crash. 12:40 Carmela (30 min.) Merit Award [Mexico] Producer: Guillermo Lopez Perez A slice-of-life gem that introduces us to a polio survivor and her adult son with Down syndrome, a gutsy pair who've worked out a way to survive in the seemingly inhospitable urban sprawl of Mexico City. [C] 1:20 Outsider: The Life and Art of Judith Scott (26 min.) Excellence Award [U.S.] Producer: Betsy Bayha. A beautifully rendered tribute to one of the Bay Area's most unique artists, a woman who had Down Syndrome, was deaf and did not speak, who, after losing 35 years to institutionalization, created widely acclaimed, spectacular "found object" sculptures. [C] 2:00 Let Us Spell It Out for You (2:36 min.) Emerging Artist Award [U.S.] Producer: Joseph Santini. A pastiche of spirituals, folk songs and original writing performed in ASL to protest government cuts to Deaf Theater programs nationwide. [C] 2:15 Seeing Is Believing (13 min.) Merit Award [Russia] Producer: Tofik Shakhverdiev. An upbeat portrait of a Moscow college student whose blindness does not restrict his capacity to make friends, get into contact sports, develop a sense of humor, attract girls or become a computer geek. [C] 2:40 Symphony of Silence (22 min.) Merit Award [Canada] Producer: Yves J. Ma A Canadian documentary about a 14 year old deaf poet creating an ASL poem to premiere as a joint performance with a symphony orchestra. [C] 3:15 Head Strong: Inside the Hidden World of Dyslexia and ADHD (26:41 min.) Achievement Award [U.S.] Producers: Chloe Slader, Ben Foss and Steve Schecter. A compelling, often uplifting, look at the lives of people living with dyslexia and ADHD that features a wonderfully diverse group of stories, including producer Ben Foss' own. [C] 4:00 No Bigger Than A Minute (52:30 min.) Excellence and Spirit Awards [U.S.] Producer: Steven Delano Using his personal journey as a unifying thread, Delano combines historical footage with interviews and commentary by well-known actors to develop a colorful, irreverent portrait of how dwarves or people of short stature have been represented on screen since the silent film era. 6:00-9:00 “Meet the Makers Reception” and Awards Ceremony (Free) Sunday, June 3, 2:00-7:00 p.m 2:00 Stroke (58 min.) Achievement Award [Germany] Producer: Katarina Peters An astonishingly honest look at the impact the filmmaker's young husband's massive stroke has on their relationship, from pre-stroke to five years into recovery. 3:15 Mercury Stole My Fire (12 min.) Merit Award [Australia] Producer: Anitra Nelson An artistic short in which a woman's struggle with environmental illness is beautifully dramatized using mime performance art and poetic narrative. 3:40 Darius Goes West: The Roll of His Life (92 min.) Merit Award [U.S.] Producer: Roll With Me Productions. College student Logan Smalley's highspirited, coming of age saga in which a teenager with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, aided by 11 college boys, embarks on a cross-country road trip determined to convince MTV to "pimp Darius' ride"--his oversized wheelchair. 5:30 Planet of the Blind (20 min.) Pamela K. Walker Award [Germany] Producer: Sven Werner. A filmic homage to writer Stephen Kuusisto's beautifully poetic memoir that uses distorted images to simulate the disorientation, beauty and sense of discovery from living with blurred vision expressed in Kuusisto's best-selling book. 6:00 The Epidemic (51 min.) Best of Festival [Denmark] Producer: Neils Frandsen A mesmorizing memoir of the 1952 polio epidemic in Denmark that includes stunning archival footage artfully interwoven with poetry read on Danish radio, with family photographs and recollections, and with images drawn from memories of the filmmaker's own recovery period. Half-history, half-dream, The Epidemic is a completely captivating work of documentary art. CDT/SUPERFEST, P.O. Box 1107, Berkeley, CA 94701 510-845-5576 superfest@aol.com http://www.culturedisabilitytalent.org