NewEnglandFilm.com

ReelAbilities began in New York City in 2007 as a community film festival. It “originated as a partnership between the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan and local NYC agencies that work with people with disabilities,” says festival Executive Director Jaymie Saks. The goal of the festival has been to educate people about those with disabilities and show that although they may have a disability, they are no different than anyone else. It is instead, what we have in common that connects us.

While many festivals showcase films and filmmakers and speak of expanding viewpoints by bringing awareness to others, few are focused on actually transforming cultural perceptions. The ReelAbilities Film Festival, which is holding its Boston, MA festival from January 31 to February 5th, is one such festival. Back in town for a second year, the festival is presented by the Boston Jewish Film Festival (BJFF).

ReelAbilities’ relationship with BJFF began when, according to Saks, “Jeff Harris from the Schottenstein Foundation saw the festival in NYC and felt that it should be a national event, so he contacted us to host it in Boston.” The festival is now in thirteen cities around the United States. For the Boston area, films will be screened at the Museum of Fine Arts and the West Newton Cinema.

This year, the festival is expanding to include screenings at the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center, Cardinal Cushing Centers, and the Scibelli Enterprise Center. The additional venues, which offer aid to disabled people, allows those with disabilities and those who may not be familiar with the festival the opportunity to attend free of cost.

Nine films each from a different country are slated to be presented during the festival. According to the Artistic Director for the event, Amy Geller, films for this year’s festival were pre-selected by ReelAbilities New York. “They sent us a list of about 35-40 films. From there, I had a screening committee, made up of people who work with disabilities and local filmmakers, screen the films and make recommendations.” The films were then selected for the festival and a schedule of programming was created.

Among the films being shown this year is the Australian Claymation film, Mary and Max, which opens the festival. The film is about “a lonely eight-year-old outcast living near Melbourne, who becomes pen pals with an eccentric, but caring Max Horovitz, a 44-year-old Jewish New Yorker with Asperger’s syndrome.” The film features the voices of Toni Collette and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Mary and Max respectively. There will also be a panel discussion scheduled after the screening with Elizabeth Avery and James Churchill of the Asperger’s Association of New England.

Other films for which panels are also currently scheduled include The Straight Line, “a taut French sports drama about a blind runner, who trains with a former athlete with a criminal past.” The panel will feature Josh Crary, a visually impaired marathon runner. The film Body and Soul, “an uplifting documentary following three young Mozambicans with disabilities,” will also be screened. The panel for this film features Dr. Jeanne Marie Penvenne, a social and labor historian of colonial Mozambique and History Professor at Tufts University. Another film is Princess in which a “cheerful, delusional Anna lives in a Finnish psychiatric hospital believing she is an English royal.” The panel will be made up of Anne Harrington, a Professor of the History of Psychology at Harvard, and Susan Pollack a local psychologist. The panel for this film will be moderated by Social Worker and local Therapist, Goldie Eder.

Disabilities were once believed to be debilitating illnesses, which set people apart from one another out of fear and ignorance. The ReelAbilities Film Festival in association with the Boston Jewish Film Festival has set out to change those views and transform what was once thought of as a cultural stigma into cultural awareness and promote the elimination of ignorance.