The Superfest Disability Film Festival, the longest-running festival of its kind, returns this week for its 37th year.
All 15 short films being shown are available online and were selected by a jury consisting of disabled SF State students, filmographers, disability rights advocates, scholars, community organizers and creatives. Select in-person screenings will take place at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on Saturday and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco Sunday.
The Berkeley film lineup, consisting of seven films. They are:
- (Un)fit to Work, an experimental short film in which a disabled mechanic imagines an ‘80s disco and ballroom after being denied access to apply for a job
- Me if I were a Woman, a dramatic short film about a 19-year-old with Down syndrome experiencing first love who is pressured to undergo sterilization surgery
- Whose Voice Is It Anyway, a mockumentary about two 40-year-old women who have athetoid cerebral palsy.
- Invisible World, an experimental short film that chronicles filmmaker Kym McDaniel’s introduction to health care in Utah.
- Chronic, a dramatic short film that about a woman who, after having a traumatic brain injury, joins a chronic pain support group.
- Culicidae, an Australian dramatic short film about a mosquito’s intrusion that “leads to a life and death struggle.”
- As You Are, which follows an interabled queer couple as they spend the night together for the first time.
The showings in Berkeley will be followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Daisy Friedman, an undergrad at Barnard College whose film As You Are was awarded Superfest 2023’s Best of Festival Award.
In-person portions of the festival include open/closed audio description; open captions for all live dialogue; ASL interpretation for all live dialogue; audience-integrated wheelchair seating; close-up seating for people with low vision; seating for people who are deaf or hard of hearing in close proximity to an ASL interpreter and captioning; a chemical and scent-free area set back from rest of audience; a quiet space; gender neutral restrooms; and separate screening room without audio description.
Masks are required inside Freight & Salvage’s auditorium for this event.
See the festival’s website for details. Up to $50 (sliding scale)
