We believe that it is important to see diversity represented on screen. The Rotary Centre for the Arts is a proud affiliate sponsor of ReelAbilitiies Film Festival 2021 and we hope you will join us as a patron for this year’s Festival.
From May 18 to 31, 2021 support the RCA and Canadian and international film by purchasing your ReelAbilities Film Festival pass to enjoy documentaries about Deaf and disability cultures and made by filmmakers and actors with disabilities and/or who are Deaf. Your pass also includes access to Comedy Night. Many free events with your RSVP and films are Pay What You Can.
In 2016, the American-born ReelAbilities Film Festival crossed the border and launched in Canada, making this the first official international chapter of RAFF. This is the only time of year Canadians have access to these films.
ReelAbilities Film Festival 2021 includes online presentations of 15 films including the Opening Night screening of Give Me Liberty, directed by Kyrill Mikhanovsky, on May 26. Give Me Liberty is a dramatic comedy about a perpetually late medical transport driver steering a bus that’s effectively a microcosm of American society. The Closing Night screening of ReelAbilities on May 30 is the Youth Shorts Program featuring six short films from around the world, including three Canadian films: #HospitalChic by Ophira Calof, Fluid by Mari “Dev” Ramsawakh, and Endomic by Camille Hollet-French and Ipek Ensari.
The feature programming at ReelAbilities Film Festival offers strong points of view and unique perspectives from around the world with films including the acclaimed documentary feature The Reason I Jump; the Venezuelan narrative feature The Special, which follows Chuo navigating the challenges of early adulthood with Down Syndrome as he seeks to build a life of independence; the documentary feature from Mexico Maricarmen, which follows blind cello player, music teacher, writer, and marathon runner Maricarmen Graue; and the Canadian doc feature The World is Bright, directed by Ying Wang, following the epic 10-year journey of a Chinese couple searching for the truth behind their son’s death in Canada.
Over the past four years, ReelAbilities Film Festival Toronto has launched programs alongside producing the festival each Spring. Programs such as the ReelAccess/CinemAccessible Guide and the CBC-ReelAbilities Breaking Barriers Film Fund have helped build this Toronto festival into a mainstay of the city’s disability and cinematic fabric! The ReelEducation program has brought films and lesson plans about equity and inclusion into 118 schools and in 28 school boards in Canada.
See you at the movies!
