March 15th 2008
The richnness of difference:
Cinema, audiovisual and technologies to better live together e

Spazio Oberdan - Milano

The project entitled Cinema senza barriere ("Cinema Without Barriers") was launched by the Province of Milan in 2005, with support from the Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lombardia. The new scheme was intended to dovetail with the Province's other outreach and awareness-raising actions on disabled persons, within the context of its programmes for training and inclusion in the workplace.

As an initiative with educational as well as entertainment value, alongside its purpose of social integration, the project does more than enhance screenings of films at the Spazio Oberdan with audio commentary and subtitles for the visually impaired and hard of hearing: it also organizes an annual meeting to provide information and training for a general audience sensitive to culture, art and disability issues, and for an audience of specialist operators, students, teachers and film lovers, all with a shared interest in learning about experiences in Italy and abroad which tackle prejudice and help to bring down mental barriers.

Reducing the risk of social exclusion and marginalisation is a day-to-day commitment that the Provincial authority has maintained for years, through the joint efforts of its various departments. Several of those departments have cooperated in this particular educational initiative, which is aimed at all those who are keen to capture its dynamic and cultural value.

 
Free entrance while seats available, reservation is welcome. For info and reservations:
tel +39.02.76115394
info|at|mostrainvideo.com

Received with great interest above all by those directly involved with disability issues, the Cinema Without Barriers seminars have proved that people can paint even if they are blind and love music even if they are deaf; they have demonstrated the similarities between sign language and film expression; they have shown incredulous attendees with "normal" abilities just how many creative ways there are to express one's feelings and emotions.

Indeed, emotions are the starting point for this year's event, which opens with an expert in neurobiology. Taking his examples from research in mirror neurons, he will invite us all to take creativity to the limit, as the fundamental medium for affirming our life force and aspirations. This introduction sets the tone for other contributions from across Europe: documentaries made with the deaf in the Netherlands, films produced in Swedish schools, dance from Australian group Merry Makers and the possible applications of technologies using e-skin.

The people who appear in the films being shown are aware of what makes them different, but also of their own inner wealth. It is precisely that awareness, as the first disabled comic in Italy has put it, "which can break down the culture of being kind to the disabled which breeds prejudice".

It is our wish that, by showing the results of best practices and the work that made them possible, we may add our bit towards the integration of two worlds that often fail to communicate despite their proximity. In this way we will also be implementing the dictates of the United Nations' recently adopted Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to which Italy, too, became a signatory in March 2007.

Daniela Benelli, director, Culture, Cultures and Integration
Bruno Casati, director, Employment
Ezio Casati
, director, Economic Activities and Professional Training

Programme

Interventi
9.15 Opening session

9.40 Enzo Soresi, Surgeon, consultant pneumatologist , free Neurobiologist Reasercher, with particular interest in the neuroendocrine system, author of 150 scientific publications, OCTOPUS's (Association for the prevention of Smoke diseases) Secretary, Italy.
The anarchic brain: from emotion to creative act

10.15 David Anzalone, Nickname: Zanza, he's a comic actor of shows such as Targato H, whose common mark is the constant ironic key through which he puts upsidedown commun beliefs we have regarding handicap. Italy.
Laugh is human (Rabelais). Handicap no. (Anzalone)

10.50 Coffee break

Film11.10 Ange Wieberdink, She produces and directs documentaries that focus on the position of minorities in society; her central theme has been the intercultural communication and its influence on cooperation amongst different cultures, and film is a way to achieve this goal. The Netherlands.
A key to Paradise. Facing the reality of being deaf

12.00 Tomas Johansson, He is working at the Swedish Film Institute since 1994. He takes care of the subsidies for subtitling and "audio-description" of Swedish films for the deaf and blind people and for subsidies for import and marketing of foreign art house films. He works in association with a number of special schools for deaf children who have begun to work with film projects. Sweden.
Swedish films accessible for deaf and blind

12.30 Joël Brisse, director of the movie "Les pinces à linge", France. Director, painter, actor, he directed many short and medium movies, who win also international prize, as "La Fin du règne animal", 2003. Avec Bruno Lochet et Hélène Fillières, Gran Prix at the Torino Film Festival 2003.Les pinces a linge
A blind in the image world

Screening of the film
Les pinces à linge
, Joël Brisse-Magouric Productions 1997, France, 22'

13.15/14.30 Lunch break

14,30 Jill Scott, Research Professor at the Institute of Cultural Studies in Art, Media and Design of Zurich's Plastic and Figurative Art University. Artist herself, she liaises with a lot of projects which approach artists to science and technological research.
The E-skin project: creating electronic skin for Visually Impaired People

The Music in Me15.15 Lucinda Bryant, Merry Makers'Artistic Director, presents the film The Music in Me by Anne Kenyon and Nigel Traill, Australia 2007, 63'

15.30 Screening of the film
The Music in Me
Vincitore di numerosi premi -ultimo The Angel Humanitarian Award al Monaco International Film Festival- il film racconta la storia di un gruppo di persone unico nel suo genere: i Merry Makers. 70 ballerini, di età compresa tra i 6 e i 56 anni, affetti da disabilità fisiche o mentali, i Merry Makers si rifiutano di essere sconfitti dalle enormi sfide che la vita ha riservato loro e riescono ad entrare "danzando" nei cuori e nelle menti di tutti coloro i quali li vedono esibirsi.

Coordina l'incontro Eva Schwarzwald, Direttrice artistica del progetto Cinema Senza Barriere.

Long life to the difference! Short movie Exhibition for less prejudices

Cinema can undoubtedly help us understand problems people with psychic and physic disabilities face. It makes us think about how little attention our fast-moving world pays to people with "different" sensorial and emotional abilities.

16.45/17.45

0,08%0,08% - Johan Kramer, The Nederlands, 2006, 10'
0,08% is as much as Victor can see. He is a little Spanish boy, crazy about football, the sea and the idea of travel. There is something special about him, a strength and a commitment that allow him to do quite everything as a normal kid; his desire for life can only be the fruit of a courage that recognizes no barriers.

GenjiGenji - Diederik van Rooijen, The Nederlands, 2006 15'
Bo is a small 8 years old Chinese girl. Someday, she becomes friend with the tall and blind girl Lot. Both girls are bullied by the big Vincent. Bo wants to help Lot, but she does not know how...

Everyone's got a nutty uncle - Afonso Cruz, Portugal, 2006, 6'
There are nuts for every season. Some are positive, some bad. Peida Gadoc has an aunt who is nut for dresses. Zuca has an uncle who's always reading books and suffers from seizures that leave him slack-jawed and vacant-minded.

Extracts from the films

Hans the clopperThe tinderbox, 1993, Hans the clopper, 1999, by Michail Badica, Denmark, 6'
Famous Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales, revisited with creative additions from the director. These stories are told also through LIS (Sign Language Translation), which enable deaf children to follow the movie.

Hearts by Øyvind Sandberg, Norway, 10'
The story is about Käre Morten and Per, who both have Down's syndrome. Käre has a girlfriend, Maybritte -a colourful character, very well known in the streets of Bergen. A humoristic and moving film; we'll see the extract where Maybritt explains how she can remember the different days of the week.

Translation services
-simultaneous translation both for English/Italian/English
-sign Language translation LIS and stenotyping
-Italian subtitles for all audiovisual material screened

 

Credits and collaborations

Cinema Without Barriers by AIACE Milano in collaboration with Raggio Verde

2008 Seminar Sponsor: