January 26, 2013

Reelabilities Boston Disability Film Festival

[From Cambridge Commission on Disabilities]

Feb. 2  Second Annual ReelAbilities Disabilities Film Festival presents The Straight Line with Audio Description at the MFA – Run in Boston by the Boston Jewish Film Festival, this film festival is dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities. This film is in French with English open captions and Audio Descriptions (including English translation and scene description). The Straight Line is a taut French sports drama about a blind runner, who trains with a former athlete with a criminal past. Josh Crary, who authors the Boston Blind Runner blog and will run the Boston Marathon for the second time in April, will speak after the film, which is being held at 7pm at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), 465 Huntington Avenue in Boston. Tickets are $10. Visit <www.bjff.org/reelabilities>, email <info@bjff.org> or call 617‑244‑9899 for more info.
Feb. 3  ReelAbilities Disabilities Film Festival presents Body and Soul at the MFA –This powerful and uplifting documentary, which is in Portuguese with English open captions, follows three young Mozambicans with physical disabilities. Their resilient daily lives reveal their physical, psychological and emotional challenges. Dr. Jeanne Marie Penvenne, social and labor historian of colonial Mozambique and history professor at Tufts University, will be present to introduce Body and Soul. The film will be screened at the MFA at noon, and tickets are $4. See Feb. 2 ReelAbilities listing for more information, including location and contact.
Feb. 3  ReelAbilities Disabilities Film Festival presents Me, Too at the MFA –In this gripping Spanish drama (with English open captions), Daniel, a recent college graduate with Down Syndrome forges a strong bond with vivacious workmate Laura, but their burgeoning relationship turns complicated when he professes his love to her. This film questions modern relationships and conceptions of “normality” as the couple grapples with their need to connect. The film will be screened at the MFA at 2:15pm and tickets are $4. See Feb. 2 ReelAbilities listing for more information, including location and contact.
Feb. 4  Parent Information Session for Heads Up – Did you know that mentoring can improve friendships, family relationships, and school attendance? Heads Up is a new mentoring program at Cambridge Family & Children’s Service (CFCS), connecting youth and caring adults who have a family member with a mental health need. Come learn how Heads Up staff engage mentors, mentees, and families in order to ensure a safe, successful, and fulfilling relationship for your child. The Information Session will from 6-7pm at CFCS, 60 Gore St. in Cambridge, right by the Lechmere MBTA & bus stop. Limited childcare is available upon request. To RSVP or for more information, contact Yelena Tsilker at 617‑876‑4210 x141 or by email at <ytsilker@helpfamilies.org>.
Feb. 4  ReelAbilities Disabilities Film Festival presents a FREE screening of  Mabul  at the JCC in Newton – In this award-winning Israeli film (in Hebrew with English open captions), Yoni studies his bar mitzvah portion about the story of Noah’s Ark amidst a troubled family, and life gets complicated when older brother Tomer, who is autistic, returns home. Note: mild sexual content. This screening will be held at 6:30pm at the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center (JCC), 333 Nahanton St. in Newton. For more information about the JCC, email <info@jccgb.org> or call 617‑558‑6522. See Feb. 2 ReelAbilities listing for more information about the Film Festival.
Feb. 5  ReelAbilities Disabilities Film Festival presents  Princess in West Newton – Cheerful, delusional Anna lives in a Finnish psychiatric hospital believing she is an English royal. Can “Princess” escape a dangerous lobotomy, a cutting-edge psychiatric treatment in the mid-20th century, the period in which the film is set? The film is in Finnish with English open captions and will be held 7pm at the West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street/Route 16 in West Netwon. Social worker and local therapist Goldie Eder will moderate a panel about the portrayal of mentally ill characters in contemporary film following the screening. Tickets are $10 each. See <www.westnewtoncinema.com> or call617‑964‑8074 for information about the Cinema, and please refer to the Feb. 2 ReelAbilities listing for more information about the Film Festival.

Mar. 2  Disability Reframed Presents:  Benda Bilili! – Join us for a free screening of this 2010 documentary film, followed by a lively audience discussion. This screening will be held from 2pm to 5pm at the Salvation Army Kroc Community Center, 650 Dudley Street in Dorchester.  Benda Bilili! follows a group of homeless musicians with disabilities living on the streets of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as they form a group called Staff Benda Bilili and eventually reach a worldwide acclaim. "Benda Bilili" means "look beyond appearances" in Lingala, one of the native languages of the Congo.  For sign language interpreters or other accommodations, please contact the Boston Commission for Persons with Disabilities by February 22 at 617‑-635-‑3682 (voice) or 617-635-2541 (TTY) or e-mail disability@cityofboston.gov.  Sponsored by the Salvation Army Kroc Center, Boston Commission for Persons with Disabilities and Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities.  Join Disability Reframed: A Community Film Series on Facebook!

[From 
ThePhoenix.com/movies
January 25, 2013
Page 70]

Reelabilities Boston Disability Film Festival

Though Hollywood occasionally dramatizes the Plight of the disabled and mentally ill - as in this year's highly touted films The Sessions and Silver Linings Playbook - it's not a subject they're very comfortable with. For a more enlightening look at how those faced by various mental and physical challenges cope and prevail, don't miss this series of nine films that runs through February 5, 2013. It starts on January 31, 2013 with Adam Elliot's animated Mary and Max (2009), in which Philip Seymour Hoffman voices the latter character, a Jewish man from New York with Asperger's Syndrome, who pursues a pen pal relationship with mary (Toni Collette), as an unhappy eight-year-old living in Australia.

West Newton Cinema
1296 Washington Street,
West Newton, MA
7:00 PM $10
617-964-8074 or
boston.reelabilities.org

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