We’re less than 2 weeks away from the Sydney Film Festival program launch for 2017, and SFF has released its Screenability selections for this year’s festival. The program highlights creatives with talent eager to own the disability narrative. Screenability is designed to boost the participation of under-represented groups in the screen industry.
Created in partnership with Screen NSW and the NSW Department of Family and Community Services, Screenability selection of 3 features and 3 shorts showcases the best of 2017, spanning drama and documentary from Australia, France, New Zealand and the UK, offering insights and unique perspectives on life.
Manuel von Stürler’s LUST FOR SIGHT is an autobiographical journey of a filmmaker who sets out to define what it means to see after being told by his doctors that he can’t see colours. Von Stürler visits an island where one in three inhabitants inherit the same condition he has, discovering kindred spirits as they share their coping mechanisms.
MY NAME IS EMILY will also bring Irish filmmaker Simon Fitzmaurice to Sydney. Starring Evanna Lynch (Harry Potter series) in the titular role, it follows a girl who is flung into foster care after her father is institutionalised. Australia’s PULSE, from filmmaker Steve Cruz-Martin, sees a gay teen with disability transplanted into the body of a beautiful blonde woman. The festival describes it as “sexed-up modern parable on what it is to be young, with disability and queer on the verge of adulthood.”
The sessions will be open captioned. If there is an introduction and Q&A this will be Auslan interperated. Details, including a list of the short films, can be found on sff.org.au
