Oska Bright film festival
Still from Donkey Spell, an animation made by Carousel in collaboration with Junk TV.
A festival of short films by people with learning disabilities
Learning disability arts organisation Carousel and community film makers Junk TV ran the first ever learning disability film festival, which took place in Brighton on November 29, 2004.
The festival is run by a committee of people with learning disabilities. They make all decisions about how to make the festival as accessible as possible. They have regular meetings to decide on publicity, co-ordination and film selection.
The History
Oska Bright came about after the success of a collaborative film project - Disneyland Disaster. People with learning disabilities, funders and carers at the Blue Camel Club and in meetings, presentations and conferences, all felt the films should be made available to many more people.
Junk TV and Carousel set about creating a festival as they believed that there were other people with learning disabilities making films too.
A film festival of national significance seemed to be the best way of this process happening. Sarah Pickthall, Disability Arts Officer for Arts Council, South East said:
Arts Council England South East has been instrumental in supporting the development of the learning disabled steering committee to self advocate and decide every element of the festival activity with facilitation support from Carousel and Junk TV.
This model is of enormous significance to the region. As an organisation, Arts Council is keen to underpin projects that address cultural diversity and transform people's lives putting people with disabilities demonstrably and appropriately in control of their own arts development.
The committee who are truly representative, culturally diverse and learning disabled as well as accomplished artists, film makers, administrators and performers will illustrate how powerful and relevant this way of working can be.
The Future
The committee are in the process of evaluating the findings. This will reveal what people want Oska Bright to be. Junk TV and Carousel are currently looking at organising a biennial event.
Event organiser, Carousel's Mark Richardson said: We want as many film makers with learning disabilities to come to the festival as possible. We want to ensure that the films are open to a wide audience so that people can see the creative talents and achievements of people with learning disabilities.
If you want to find out more about the festival you can contact Carousel at:
Community Base, 113 Queens Road, Brighton BN1 3XGPhone: 01273 234 734
Fax/Textphone: 01273 234 735
Info@carousel.org.uk
www.carousel.org.uk
www.junk-tv.org.uk
last updated: 2005-01-01 00:00:00
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tags : learning disabilities film festival