Although it is promoted as Australia's "only film event exploring experiences of disability", the founders of Other Film Festival firmly excluded the "d" word from the festival's title.
Not that they were being coy, but the language of disability is rich in euphemism and they were trying to navigate their way through it. Advocates use words such as "challenged", "differently abled" and "survivor"; the current affairs shows prefer "brave", "special" and "sufferer". Many in the disabled community reject them all.
The third Other Film Festival (it's a two-yearly event) features more than 35 films, plus forums and guest speakers from around the world. And that title is double-edged, both a celebration of difference and an ironic acknowledgement that that difference is not as great as it might seem.
"Disabled people want the same things you and I do," says festival director and founder Rick Randall (pictured above left with patron Adam Elliot and filmmaker David Norris). "They want a root, they want to go out and have fun, they want their privacy, and they want to see their own story up on the screen — and that's something the disabled community doesn't see much."
A community filmmaker, artist and project director for more than 25 years, Randall says the idea for the festival grew out of a lack of outlets for promoting the work of people with disabilities. "After some brainstorming with (funding body) Arts Access, everyone agreed that when you use the word 'disabled', it's death to getting any media or positive coverage. Disability is always portrayed as about being a superhero or overcoming stuff, which is really patronising. We see ourselves, in a small way, as a curative to that, or in opposition to those stories.
"What film does better than anything else, when it works well, is open a door onto someone else's experience. In the past we've looked at the portrayal of disability; now we're concerned with the experience of disability and films that tell those stories really well."
To this end, not all entries in the Other Film Festival are made by people with disabilities; nor do they all feature actors or characters with disabilities. Audiences seeking inspiring films about battling afflictions or triumphant tales of amputee Arctic explorers should perhaps look elsewhere.
Melbourne filmmaker Adam Elliot, who won an Oscar for his 2003 animation Harvie Krumpet, has been the festival's patron since its inception, and this year a sneak preview of his forthcoming animated feature Mary and Max will be shown. Like all his films, Mary and Max touches on living with a disability; it's an animation based on Elliot's pen friend in New York, who has Asperger's syndrome.
"The film deals with the term 'disability' and how the main character, Max, doesn't like the term applied to him," says Elliot. "He likes his Asperger's syndrome and doesn't want it to be cured."Elliot says he has always been naturally drawn to marginalised characters. "Every film I've made has a person who is 'the other'. My cousin has cerebral palsy and I was brought up with him, so that's what my second film, Cousin, is about. My brother has asthma, Harvie Krumpet had Tourette's syndrome; they've all had some sort of affliction or flaw. I don't deliberately try and create characters. I write about people around me and I'm surrounded by people who have … things."
Elliot has a "thing", too — a hereditary shake that can affect his entire body. "I don't use the word disabled; I say it's a flaw I have, it's a problem. But that's not why I'm involved with the festival. I'm involved because of the content of my films."
One of the undeniable aspects of disability, says Randall, is that it's visually interesting. "Our eyes go to difference," he says. "It's very cinematic. And disability can stop you doing something, which is perfect for film. Film is about obstacles. That's what drives drama."
One of the local films selected for the festival features a character's disability as the driver of a rather unpleasant storyline. Tuesday, by VCA student filmmaker David Norris, is the story of Jim, a recent quadriplegic and, as Norris describes him, "a prick" who finds himself trapped and alone in the bath.
Norris himself is not disabled, but draws on his family experience. Norris' younger brother Michael has cerebral palsy and is quadriplegic. "He has had cerebral palsy my entire life, and he can't speak and has only 20% vision in one eye. But the point of the film was to show that people with a disability are human like everyone else," Norris says.
His mother and stepfather are carers for people with disabilities, which got him thinking about disabled people who are angry.
"My brother has been the best communicator, and never complains or whinges, but I think the story came from wondering what would happen if the people who cared for him suddenly weren't there."
Elliot and Randall are impressed with Tuesday, which they describe as bleak, with some "very black" moments of comedy.
"It's a film that would stand up at any festival," says Randall. "It just fits into our festival because it has a theme of disability."
Many of the festival's films have been shown at non-disability film events around the world.
"You can just walk in off the street and see something and it'll be the same, if not better than a film at the St Kilda Film Festival," says Elliot of the festival's broad scope. "And anyway, I think everyone has a disability or a flaw. Some are visible, some are not. It's about how you perceive yourself and others."
The Other Film Festival runs from Sept. 3-7 at The Age Theatre, Melbourne Museum. David Norris' film Tuesday screens at 6 p.m.on Saturday. Details: http://www.otherfilmfestival.com/
