DISABILITY IN THE MEDIA

Camera, Lights, Action! On the Oska Bright Film Festival

Oska Bright is the only film festival in the world run by and for people with learning disabilities and will be taking place on Monday 28th November in Brighton.

This will be the second festival, now supported by the UK Film Council and Mencap. Last year, the festival attracted over 1000 people and 80 film submissions from all over Europe. This year, the numbers are set to increase, demonstrating the strong need to raise the profile of disability arts in the media.

The Festival is organized by a team of six learning disabled artists with support from disability arts organisation Carousel and community film makers Junk TV. They have regular meetings to decide on publicity, co-ordination and film selection and how to make the festival accessible.

One of the organizers, Sarah says. “We meet up to work on interesting jobs such as designing leaflets, getting money, choosing the films, meeting other organisations, spreading the word and running the festival day. We have people to help us understand each other because one of us speaks French and one of us is deaf.”

The films will be between 1 minute and 10 minutes long and ‘Oscar’ style statues will be awarded at a film premiere event for the best film in each category.

If you want to come and see any of the film screenings at the festival, you can book tickets on 01273 234734.