Superfest Disability Film Festival Chicago Showcase: Friday

Important Access Information Update

• All of the films we will be screening have professional captions. 
• On Friday, most of the event will be the screenings, with a welcoming announcement and announcements of each film. We will provide access copies of our announcement "script" and use Google slide auto-captions projected in the space.
• On Saturday, we are holding out some hope that an ASL interpreter will be found for the discussion panel portion. We will again provide access copies of our announcement "script" and use the auto-captions that are built into Zoom. 

Friday, October 20

5-7pm (In person)

Student Center East, Room 605

750 S Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60607

Saturday, October 21

1-4pm (In person), and 3:15-4pm (Zoom conversation)

Student Center East, Room 329, Cardinal Room

750 S Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60607

Zoom: https://go.uic.edu/DCCZoom

Join the UIC Disability Cultural Center for a Chicago showcase of the Superfest Disability Film Festival!

We are thrilled to host two in-person screenings of the festival’s exciting line-up.

On Saturday, we will also have a hybrid panel discussion about the films from 3:30-4pm. Tune in on Zoom after watching at home, or come in-person and join in the conversation.

What is Superfest?

Superfest Disability Film Festival is the longest running disability film festival in the world. Since it first debuted in a small Los Angeles showcase in 1970 it has become an eagerly anticipated international event—hosted by Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State. For more than 30 years, Superfest has celebrated cutting-edge cinema that portrays disability through a diverse, complex, unabashed and engaging lens.

Covid safety:

UIC does not require masking, but we are still masking indoors as an accessibility measure for chronically ill / immunocompromised folks and those living interdependently with them. Please wear a mask! We’ll have extras on hand. Some people may unmask briefly to eat refreshments, but we’ll have a “no unmasking” area designated to make physical distancing possible.

Access info:

• CART (live captions) and ASL will be provided, and audio description is available on the festival’s companion app, All4Access. Use the app on your phone or tablet while watching the films on a different device.  Read instructions for All4Access here
• Student Center East is near the Blue Line, Roosevelt bus, and Halsted bus. There is a drop-off area on Halsted Street, and a parking garage across the street at Halsted & Polk.
• SCE has all-gender and accessible restrooms available, though many do not have automatic doors. We’ll have people available at each screening for access requests: opening doors, giving directions, etc.
• Contact dcc@uic.edu with any other access questions or requests.

Thank you to the UIC Honors College and Bodies of Work for their support!

Read about all of the films at :
https://www.superfestfilm.com/2023-films

Content warnings for the films

Friday line-up

(Un)fit to work

UK, 2022 (Experimental Short, 5 min)

A disabled mechanic takes us on a musical journey of 80s disco & ballroom through his imagination after he’s denied access to apply for the job he’s best suited for at his local job center.

Me if I Were A Woman

France, 2022 (Dramatic Short, 27 min)

Juliette, a 19-year-old with Down syndrome, is experiencing her first love, but her romance is quickly upended when Juliette is pressured by her mother and doctors to undergo sterilization surgery because of her disability. She has only a short time to make a decision and make her voice heard.

Whose Voice is it Anyway

UK, 2022 (Mockumentary Short, 5 min)

A darkly funny mockumentary about two identically disabled forty-year-old women, Lottie and Charlie, who have athetoid cerebral palsy. Both celebrate their 40th birthday with family and friends—one is given the choice and the ability to communicate, and the other is not.

Invisible World

USA, 2023 (Experimental Short, 5 min)

To apply for an disabled parking placard, a doctor within the state must approve the application. As part of the application, there are six medical conditions which qualify a person for a placard. Many people with disabilities are included in these categories, and many are not. This film is a record of the filmmaker’s introduction to healthcare in the state of Utah. Her processing of the appointment and consequential aftermath as a video object serves as a reclamation and assertion for understanding disability and the physical world otherwise.

Chronic

Canada, 2022 (Dramatic Short, 9 min)

Following a traumatic brain injury, a young woman's recovery is interrupted when her friends insist she come out for a birthday party. After reinjuring herself, she takes the first step in her new life by joining a chronic pain support group.

Culicidae

Australia, 2022 (Dramatic Short, 6 min)

A mosquito’s late night intrusion leads to a life and death struggle.

As You Are

USA, 2023 (Dramatic Short, 15 min)

When an interabled queer couple spends the night together for the first time, they must confront their complex relationships with desire, sexuality, bodily autonomy, and what it means truly to love another person.

Saturday line-up

Take Me Home

USA, 2022 (Dramatic Short, 16 min)

After their mother’s death, a cognitively disabled woman and her estranged sister must learn to communicate in order to move forward.

We Make Film

India, 2021 (Documentary Feature, 80 min)

Set across three cities in India, We Make Film explores the creative journeys of d/Deaf and disabled filmmakers Debopriya, Mijo and Anuja. While some battles against inaccessability are won, sometimes they must give up dreams altogether due to inaccessible environments, exclusionary production practices, or barriers to film education. While documenting their stories, Shweta too begins to reflect on her privileges and revisits the lifelong creative collaborations she has had with her disabled father. We Make Film presents the intersection of these four filmmakers’ experiences through a documentary that rethinks accessibility, ally-ship, and collaboration in filmmaking today, and dreams of an inclusive creative future for all of us.

The Beauty of Being Deaf

USA, 2023 (Experimental Short, 3 min)

Artist, director, and author Chella Man presents a meditation on Deaf identity and language—underwater.