We are the Oska Bright steering committee and in this blog you will find about our experience of taking our film festival across the UK and abroad. Go to the dao directory for a link to the Oska Bright website. You can also read about the next Festival, which takes place in 2013, and find details of how to enter your own film.

Oska Bright On The Road Australia – Reel 2 Reel residency project in partnership with Tutti

12 March 2011

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By Matthew Hellett We have just finished a very successful week of our film making residency. 11 young people with a learning disability attended the training from across Adelaide – there were some people from Tutti choir, Restless Dance Company and some independent young people interested in film. We ran the course in the Marion area of Adelaide. They all created a very interesting film script and their film was called “Cops and Rockers” - we thought the film was very good....

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Oska Bright On The Road – The Launch of Reel 2 Reel project in partnership with Tutti at Adelaide International Film Festival

3 March 2011

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5 March 2011 at Mercury Cinema, Adelaide It was a really great day! We got to Mercury at 11 am ready to set up. Simon sorted out our audio description with the technician there, whilst we rehearsed our talk about Oska Bright with Mark. When we were ready we went out for a coffee and then lunch in Adelaide – we went through the red light district! At 2.30 pm we went back to Mercury Cinema to get ready for the launch. We helped Tutti to set up the food and drinks in the foyer of the cinema...

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Stephen Firschman reports on Oska Bright at 'Picture This...' Film Festival, Canada 2011

17 February 2011

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I arrived in Canada and the first thing that I saw was the snow – it was quite slippery but I enjoyed looking at it. On Saturday 12th February I went to the Picture This ….. Film Festival Award Gala in a nice posh hotel. My job was to talk about Oska Bright, present an Award and pick up some other Awards for film makers who couldn't attend. First of all, I picked up an Award for “The Piano”, a great little film that we screened in Oska Bright 2009. I really like this...

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Oska Bright at St John’s College, Brighton

10 December 2010

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By Adele King, Sarah Watson and Matthew Hellett We arrived at St John’s College and set up in the Youth Centre there. They had a new plasma screen to show our films on. We started off by doing a power point presentation. Everyone seemed very interested. Then we showed 'Oska Bright 2009 – Films from the West'. People laughed and we sang along with some of the lyrics, especially “Fish and Chips Today” from “Shape Up” and with the sheep from “Desperate...

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Oska Bright at Learning Disability Today, Islington, London

9 December 2010

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By Sarah Watson and Matthew Hellett It took a long time to get to the Business Design Centre – we ended up having to get a taxi from St Pancras Train Station because there were too many people trying to get onto the tube! When we arrived at the Learning Disability Today event, we spent some time setting up for our screenings. When things got going we went around to all of the stalls and everywhere with key rings and business cards, telling everyone about Oska Bright and where we were...

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Oska Bright On The Road – Liverpool

29 November 2010

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We arrived in Liverpool on Tuesday 23rd November at 5.30 pm ready for Dadafest 2010. We checked into the Travelodge central, just across the road from the fantastic World Museum where were going to be showing Oska Bright films the next day. On 24th November we arrived at the World Museum at 8.30 am. We met Rob from Dadafest who helped us get into the Museum where we met the lovely Paul and bubbly Jo. We set up ready for the films. Some of the films we showed we hadn't seen for ages, and seeing...

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Oska Bright presenting an Award at the Flash Forward Film Festival, Oxford on 7th November 2010

9 November 2010

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We had a really good day out at this Festival. It was an afternoon screening at VUE cinema. There were lots of films that we liked seeing, in particular: “Let Me In” by Arty Party was a great animation. It started off with a drawn person doing drawings which looked amazing. Then the characters all went home where some really strange things happened. First a man answered his door to lots of strange people and ended up inviting a lady with big boobs and a pizza to watch TV with him....

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Oska Bright put on an event in Jubilee Square, Brighton

27 September 2010

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By the Oska Bright Steering Committee On Saturday 18th September some of us put on a fund raising event in Jubilee Square in the centre of Brighton. We were trying to let more people know about Carousel's work supporting arts by learning disabled people. We were also trying to raise money so that we can continue our good work helping to show the talents of learning disabled artists. There was the Shut Up and Listen radio show, live music, dancing competitions, an information stand and we...

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Oska Bright July 2010 news

30 July 2010

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Oska Bright July news by the Oska Bright Steering Committee We are getting ready to go to Liverpool to show Oska Bright films and run a master class at DaDaFest International 2010. The films will be shown at the Treasure House Film Cinema at the World Museum on the 24th November. The master class is the day after. If you live in Liverpool please come along. We even have a film we will be showing there about The Beatles called 'The Story of the Beatles' made by the great Project Ability from...

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Oska Bright On the Road – Unity Festival, Cardiff, 28th June 2010

29 June 2010

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By Matthew Hellett, Sarah Watson and June Hall This year in Cardiff at Unity Festival 2010, we worked with our friends at Disability Arts Cymru, Unity Festival and HiJinx Theatre. We showed some Oska Bright films and ran our master class in a different place this year. It is called The Pierhead, a lovely old building that looks over Cardiff Bay. It is a place that is very funky and full of restaurants and bars. We had seen this building before on TV in the first series of Torchwood! We started...

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Oska Bright go On The Road to the Hull Film Festival, April 2010

22 April 2010

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By Maggie Dadsbury and Sarah Watson Maggie and I arrived at Ferens Art Gallery at 9 am. It was sunny but very very cold. We waited ages for them to open the doors so that we could get in to set up for the screenings. When we got inside, the gallery had lots of room and was great. We had to sort out all of the technical stuff as there was nobody there to sort it out. Simon did a very good job! We met Sarah from Artslink and Sharon from Flexible Care – the ones from Hull who we worked with...

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Oska Bright On The Road - Cornwall Film Festival, March 2010

15 March 2010

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By Stephen Firshman and Sarah Watson It took us ages to get to Truro – there were lots of diversions on the roads and we had to be very patient. When we got here we were all knackered! Today was really busy. We were working for Cornwall Film Festival, doing some special training for people with learning disabilities to make films. We started off by running a Level 2 master class in film making. There were 38 people on the course – thats quite a lot! It made it quite hard work, but...

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Oska Bright On The Road – at See Documentary Film Festival, Brighton, 21st February 2010

21 February 2010

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By Matthew Hellett, Sarah Watson, Chris Love, June Hall and Maggie Dadswell It was really, really early on a rainy Sunday morning and we made our way to The Old Ship Hotel in Brighton to show some Oska Bright films at SEE – Brighton’s Documentary Film Festival. We showed documentary films from the Oska Bright Library. We showed some of our favourite films from over the years – like “35 Km” by Vilmos Kerescendy (Oska Bright 2009), “Sparkle” by Matthew...

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Oska Bright On The Road – Dublin, axis arts centre February 2010

10 February 2010

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By Matthew Hellett   We arrived at Gatwick and flew to Dublin, going to a part of Dublin called Ballymun. We went to axis arts centre as soon as we got there to check out the venue and see where we would be working the next day.   On Thursday the 4th February, we got to axis arts centre at 8.30 am. We set up for our master class in film making. We were expecting 15 people, but it was over booked – so we ended up with 36 people in total! This worked very well – it was a...

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Matthew Hellett gives a talk at the Independent Cinema Office at the British Film Institute, London

20 January 2010

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Today I went to the British Film Institute to do a talk about Oska Bright Film Festival for the Independent Cinema Office, who were running a training course there that was called, “Cultural Cinema Exhibition”. I did a presentation and showed some films – it was very successful. There were over 40 people there from all over the world. They asked lots of questions about Oska Bright – questions like, “How do you select films to show in Oska Bright”. I could...

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Oska Bright On The Road in Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland

4 December 2009

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By Chris Love and Sarah Watson We are feeling great! Our Festival On The Road in Ballina, County Mayo was very successful. It was a very busy festival. The people at Arts and Disability Ireland – Janet and Padraig – helped us get the venue ready for the screenings and the master class. Sean, the director of Ballina Arts Centre was helpful and friendly. He did the bits and pieces that we couldn’t do – like getting the screen ready, the chairs and curtains and the sound...

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Oska Bright Film Festival 2009

27 November 2009

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Oska Bright Film Festival 2009 17th, 18th and 19th November 2009 By the Oska Bright Steering Committee We are really shattered, spent the whole weekend in bed after the festival but we are very excited about how well it went. The awards ceremony was really funny because although we planned and rehearsed it a lot, we still did what we wanted and had lots of fun on stage. Everyone was laughing at the jokes because one of the film makers who won an award looked just like Andy from our committee....

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Oska Bright On The Road – Learning Disability Today Conference, London

25 November 2009

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By Chris Love Simon picked me up at 5.50 am, then we went on to pick up Matthew. We drove to Brighton Station where we met up with Sarah and Mark. We also met up with the Shut Up And Listen Radio Show crew from Carousel – Luc, Chris and Paul They were coming along to interview people at conference, and make a special version of their radio show.   We all travelled together on the train to St Pancras. Then we went to the Design Centre in Islington for the Learning Disability Today...

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Three weeks to go until our fabulous 2009 Oska Bright Film Festival, have you bought your tickets yet?

27 October 2009

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If not then you could miss out on our biggest ever collection of amazing animations, comedies, documentaries, dramas, soap operas, dance films as well as the exciting awards ceremony and party. Oska Bright is a great chance for learning disabled film makers to meet and talk to each other, have fun watching each others films and to celebrate learning disability film. We have been working hard for the past 2 years to make this festival the biggest and most exciting ever. We are proud of all the...

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Oska Bright Outreach - Presentations to Day Centres and others By Matthew Hellett

24 September 2009

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Oska Bright 2009 starts on Tuesday the 17 November and runs through to Thursday 19 November. It is at The Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove, BN3 1AS. You can see what is going on by looking at our website at www.oskabright.co.uk or by calling us at Carousel on 01273 234734. Those of us from Oska Bright Steering Committee who have been doing this outreach are Sarah Watson, Matthew Hellett and Chris Love. We have enjoyed doing this and we have learned about how to put a power point...

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Oska Bright On The Road – Newcastle Tyneside Cinema, July 2009

30 July 2009

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On Monday 27th July we arrived at Newcastle Train Station – our train was 6 minutes early! We settled in to our Premier Inn Hotel, and went out for a quiet drink and a meal. It was very nice.   The next morning we went to the Tyneside Cinema and gave a presentation about Oska Bright to the Summer MovIES event there. Then we showed some films from the Oska Bright Archive. When the films finished we did a Question and Answer session. They asked us some interesting questions about our work...

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Oska Bright On The Road – Cardiff

17 June 2009

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Wales Millennium Centre – Unity Festival By Matthew Hellett and Sarah Watson We left Brighton at 12 mid day. We arrived in Cardiff at 5.30 pm and checked into a Travel Lodge in the relaxing Cardiff Bay. We went to dinner at 7 pm at Wagamama and had a few beers at a local pub. It was Sarah's first time in Wagamama and she liked the food, but not the dessert! The next day we got up bright and early ready to run our film making master class. 21 people came to the master class – it was...

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Oska Bright On The Road – University of Kent, Canterbury, May 2009

21 May 2009

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By Matthew Hellett   Simon and Mark picked me up at 10.00 am on a beautiful sunny day and we drove at top speed in the direction of Canterbury with just enough time to stop off at FAB’s Diner on the A20.   We arrived at the University at 12.30 where we met Kate, who helped us set up.   We relaxed for a while until the audience arrived at 2 pm. I started by introducing myself, explaining the work I do as Mrs Sparkle, and then showing them my film, “Sparkle”.  There was...

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Oska Bright – ‘On the Road’ – Picture This Film Festival

18 February 2009

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Calgary, Canada. 6th – 11th February 2009 By Matthew Hellett Friday 6th February An early start, barely awake we caught the bus to Heathrow. The flight left 1.30pm and the plane was half full so the airline rearranged our seating so that we were next to a window. This was amazing because for much of the journey we were flying over arctic ice which was beautiful to see. We arrived 10 and a half hours later, 4pm Canadian time. We had been awake for 16 hours but decided to go out, visit some...

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Oska Bright On The Road

22 January 2009

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Oska Bright On the Road began with a trip to Penzance in November 2007 and continues until the end of 2008. Oska Bright team inside the Cutt Theatre We are the Oska Bright steering committee and we want to tell you about taking our film festival across the UK and abroad. Last year the festival happened over two days at the Old Market in Brighton and was an outstanding success. You can click on the following links to read a review of Oska Bright 2007 or an up to date list of the tour Last year...

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