Houston-based ReelAbilities Film and Arts Festival, a city-wide festival promoting inclusion and celebrating the lives and talents of people living with disabilities, returns for its sixth year Feb. 12-22, 2018.
The event, anchored by a five-day film festival, also features a speaker series, live music jam session, art exhibit, educational tours to local schools and seminars at local offices, to educate the community and to help change perceptions about individuals with varying levels of abilities. The festival has grown to be the largest of its type in the U.S.
“With Houston being such a diverse community, we’re excited to put people living with disabilities at the forefront of the conversation with the hopes that this festival will educate others about the country’s largest minority,” said ReelAbilities Film and Arts Festival Chair Vikki Evans. “Everyone has their own real ability that makes them unique. ReelAbilities Film and Arts Festival proves that no matter what your background or level of ability is, your potential to make an impact is limitless,” continued Co-chair Susan Farb Morris.
ReelAbilities, founded in New York in 2007 and now presented in 14 cities, is the largest festival in the country dedicated to presenting award-winning films by and about people with different disabilities. The film portion of the festival will be held at Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24 from Feb. 18-22, where movies will be screened and followed by interactive panels to encourage audience discussion. Admission and parking will be free to attendees.
Houston is considered one of the most innovative cities hosting ReelAbilities, as this festival utilizes multiple avenues to further educate and inform members of the community beyond strictly film. For instance, ReelArt, a gallery exhibit at the Center for Art and Photography at Celebration Company, will kick off the festival on Feb. 12 from 6-8 p.m., and stay on display throughout the 11-day festival. The event will feature a meet-and-greet with visiting artist Brandon Lack, a talented artist from Austin who has Down syndrome, and more than 20 exhibiting Celebration Company artists living with disabilities. Operated by JFS Houston’s Disability Services Program, Celebration Company is a Houston-based entrepreneurial program composed of 20 adult artists living with disabilities who create art for both a leisure activity and a life skill.
ReelMusic, an all-inclusive jazz and blues music jam where professional musicians invite artists with disabilities to perform, will close the festival on Feb. 22 at White Oak Music Hall from 7-9 p.m. Dee Dee Dochen, Houson jazz vocalist, will chair and emcee the high-energy musical evening.
Another unique offering to ReelAbilities Houston is ReelPeople: UP Abilities – a series of intellectually-stimulating discussions with three thought leaders from across the world on Feb. 15 from 7-9 p.m. This year’s event at HCC West Loop South Campus will feature Mandy Harvey, a respected American singer-songwriter who is deaf and was a 2017 finalist on America’s Got Talent; Joseph Bensmihen, an advisor and groundbreaking advocate for people with disabilities, born with cerebral palsy; and Caroline Casey, a Dublin-based serial social entrepreneur behind the global #valuable campaign to bring inclusion to the workplace.
Tickets will be available online for $18 at www.reelabilitieshouston.org.
In part to city organizer JFS Alexander Institute for Inclusion, and lead support from The Bristow Group and TIRR Memorial Hermann (founding partner), the film and arts events are free and open to the public. Maria Town, Director of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, also joins the Honorary Committee of ReelAbilities Houston 2018.
ReelAbilities Houston is made possible thanks to the generous support of foundations, corporations, individual sponsors and in-kind donors. To learn more about becoming a ReelAbilities sponsor, please contact JFS Chief Development Officer Rachel Davis at
rdavis@jfshouston.com or 713-667-9336 ext. 213. Guests may reserve seats for Houston’s sixth annual ReelAbilities Film and Arts Festival at www.reelabilitieshouston.org.
February 18 - 22: ReelAbilities Film Festival: The 2018 festival will screen 17 films beginning February 18 through February 22 at Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24. Each film features an interactive event to foster dialogue between the audience, the filmmaker, parents, professionals, or persons with disabilities, and to explore the subjects depicted in the film.
Admission to all films and parking is free.
This year’s films include:
February 18
Evening Feature: Full Length (Evening film begins at 7:00 PM)
• Swim Team
In this touching film, parents of one boy with autism from New Jersey form a competitive swim team, recruiting a diverse group of teens on the autism spectrum and training them with high expectations and zero pity. Director: Director Laura Stolman, 100 min, USA, English
February 19
Matinee Feature: Short Length (Matinee films begin at 1:00 PM)
• 4 Quarters
Follow the road to success of the Texas School for the Deaf Rangers, the only high school football team serving students with hearing impairments, as they take on a competitive league. Director: Cody Broadway, Documentary, 17 min, USA, English
• Dancing on Wheels
After a tragic accident, former ballerina Kitty Lunn taught herself how to dance again using her wheelchair.
Director: Qingzi Fan, Documentary, 10 mins, USA, English
• Picked
From a young age, we are shaped into behaving only as our communities deem permissible. This expectation of assimilation follows us into adulthood, where we make larger and more impactful choices. When a young girl is asked to pick a pumpkin on a school field trip, she is met with confusion and reprimand from her peers and teacher – under the guise that this admonishment is in her best interest. Her process and eventual selection is a great indication of how she will make more important decisions later in her life.
Director: Kelsey Amelia Snelling, Narrative, 8 mins, USA, English
• Still Kicking
Lucky Animaly, a 23-year-old Ghanaian, is a multi-talented energetic young man born with leg deformity who plays soccer with an able-bodied soccer team. Lucky strikes against all odds to become a world soccer star in Ghana.
Director: Osei Owusu Banahene, Documentary, 5 min, Ghana, English
Matinee Feature: Full Length (Matinee film begins at 4:00 PM)
• Nise – The Heart of Madness
An indomitable psychiatrist refuses to employ electroshock therapy and confronts Brazil’s mental health establishment in the 1950s. Based on a true story, Nise da Silveira pioneered the use of art therapy as an effective tool to treat patients with mental health issues. Director: Roberto Berliner, Narrative, 108 min, Brazil, Portuguese
Evening Feature: Full Length (Evening film begins at 7:00 PM)
• Prison Dogs
Prison Dogs focuses on the impact of a groundbreaking program that gives two of the most marginalized populations in our society – prison inmates and veterans with PTSD – a second chance. The Puppies Behind Bars Program allows prison inmates to care for and train puppies as service dogs for injured veterans.
Director: Perri Peltz, Documentary, 71 min, USA, English
February 20
Matinee Feature: Full Length (Matinee film begins at 4:00 PM)
• Blind Date
Technology is transforming the way we date and find love. Mobile apps like Tinder, and websites like OKCupid wet our appetite for instant visual gratification. But, if you’re single and blind, you face a distinct set of challenges. A digital divide has emerged between sighted and blind people in search of love. Blind Date is a short documentary that follows three blind New Yorkers on their quests for love in the digital age. Directors: Nicole Ellis & Maya Albanese, Documentary, 35 min, USA, English
Evening Feature: Full Length (Evening film begins at 7:00 PM)
• Looking at the Stars
What does it mean to ask someone to Look at the Stars? For Geyza, a prima ballerina who is blind, it means the journey of her life. This feature documentary invites us into her world, and of a special ballet academy in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the only company in South America of its kind.
Director: Alexandre Peralta, Documentary, 89 min, USA, English
February 21
Matinee Feature: Full Length (Matinee film begins at 4:00 PM)
• At Eye Level
When 11-year-old Michi finds his estranged father’s address, he can’t believe his luck. When they meet and Michi discovers that his father, Tom, has dwarfism, Michi and Tom are forced to confront both disability and fatherhood head on.
Directors: Joachim Dollhopf and Evi Goldbrunner, Narrative, 100 min,Germany, German
Evening Feature: Full Length (Evening film begins at 7:00 PM)
• My Hero Brother
A group of young people with Down syndrome embarks on a demanding trip through the Indian Himalayas accompanied by their typically abled brothers and sisters. Unresolved conflicts and the complexities of growing up with a child who has Down syndrome in the family come to the surface, while a heartwarming and special closeness develops among the siblings as they deal with formidable physical and emotional challenges. The difficult trials and poignant relationships set against the richly colorful backdrop of India open new horizons and deepen our understanding of the challenges young adults with disabilities and their families face.
Director: Yonatan Nir, Documentary, 78 min, Israel, Hebrew
February 22
Matinee Afternoon of Shorts (Short matinee film begins at 4:00 PM)
• Andy Barrie: The Voice
A former Candaian radio host, Andy Barrie, finds a new voice in battling Parkinson’s disease.
Director: Lana Slezic, Documentary, 13 min, Canada, English
• Behind the Clip: Little Foxes
Lauren Watson is a talented aerial artist with incomplete paraplegia. She has been using the art form as a fun way to get her body moving again after being partially paralyzed from the waist down as a result of a car accident in 2000.
Director: Samuel Bright, Documentary, 3 min, Australia, English
• I Am Able
In 1994, Frederick Ndabaramiye’s home country of Rwanda was torn apart. In 100
days, over one million people were killed in a horrific genocide. Four years later, the same Interhamwe rebels who spearheaded this genocide pulled over the bus that Frederick was taking to visit his aunt. What happened next would change his life forever.
Director: Isaac Seigel-Boettner, Documentary, 12 min, USA, English
• On Beat
A look inside the family life of deaf parents, their hearing children and the music that unites them.
Director: Cheng Zhang and Reid Davenport, 7 min, Documentary, English
• Sky
Nine-year-old Sky feels powerless and misunderstood among his hearing classmates. He thinks the outsiders don’t understand him, but does he understand them?
Director: Loes Janssen, Documentary, 15 min, Netherlands, Dutch
• Well Done
A young man goes to visit an art museum and is fascinated by a symbolic picture.
Director: Riccardo Di Gerlando, Narrative, 11 min, Italy, Italian
• February 22: ReelMusic: An All-Inclusive Jazz and Blues Jam: Professional jazz and blues musicians invite musicians with disabilities to jam with the band at White Oak Music Hall on from 7-9 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.).
2915 N Main St,
Houston, TX 77009
• Ongoing: ReelEducation: In addition to ReelAbilities’ city-wide public events, the festival also brings free programming during the school day to Houston area schools so that the message of inclusion and the importance of arts is being communicated to the city’s youth – through film, music, and fine art.
• Ongoing: ReelWorkplace: Hiring managers, staff, and future employees attend company-sponsored, in-house ReelWorkplace seminars featuring films, speakers, and etiquette workshops about various topics of inclusion.
(This post taken from a release sent to me by Houston ReelAbilities Film and Arts Festival)
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