Challenging stereotypes
Film festival aims to educate public on disabilities
by ELIZABETH TAUFA Reporter
W e want to create a dialogue about society's relationship with its largest minority," said Douglas Platt, curator of the Museum of disABILITY History, on the third annual disABILITIES Film Festival and Speaker Series.

The series, which will be held Friday and Saturday, Oct. 12 and 13 at Market Arcade Theatre, 639 Main St., in downtown Buffalo, will consist of three films with subject matter involving individuals with disabilities.

The series is presented by People Inc. and the Museum of disABILITY History, located at 1219 North Forest Road in Williamsville.

The previous series were spread out over a month, but this year, the festival will be held over one weekend.

"It's going to be a more compact format," Platt said. "It's more traditional. It's a good way to get people to come out, and they can choose what they want to see."

Platt also said that the festival is held at Market Arcade because of its accessibility, as well as a way of promoting downtown Buffalo.

The cost for each of the three movies is $2. Students are admitted free.

"We want the festival to be available and accessible to a diverse audience," Platt said.

At 7 p.m. Oct. 12, the film will be "Snowcake," starring Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman, and is the story of a woman with autism and an ex-convict who is traumatized after a fatal car accident.

"This is actually the first Western New York screening of this movie," Platt said.

This is the first year that the film festival has had a WNY movie premiere.

"Autism continues to be a hot topic," Platt continued. "When there are topics that occur frequently, that leads to conversation, which leads to understanding."

Following the film, Stephen Anderson, executive director of Summit Education Resources and an expert on autism, will lead a discussion on the film and autism in today's world.

At 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, the topic will be Tourette's syndrome, and the movie will be "The Tic Code."

The story of "The Tic Code" centers around a 10-year-old boy whose desire to be a jazz pianist leads him to a local nightspot where he meets a sax superstar, played by Gregory Hines.

Both learn they have Tourette's syndrome.

The speakers for this film will be Susan Conners, president of the Tourette Syndrome Association of Greater New York, and "Air" Gordon Scherer, board member of the Tourette Syndrome Association of Greater NY and WBEN and STAR 102.5 radio personality, who will discuss living and succeeding with Tourette's syndrome.

"We're lucky enough to have speakers who show that people with disabilities are involved in the community and are active and prominent," Platt said. "You wouldn't think that someone who speaks for a living has Tourette's syndrome. But it's a success when people don't think about your disability, they think about what you do."

The final film in the series will be the documentary "Unforgotten: 25 Years After Willowbrook," to be shown at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13 after "The Tic Code."

The film explores the impact that the closure of Willowbrook State School had on patients and their families after it was exposed by Geraldo Rivera in 1972.

"Most people only know about Geraldo Rivera's piece on the school," Platt said. "But deinstitutionalization was already under way. It went from a cookie-cutter system to one that was individually based."

The film follows the lives of five people who once lived at Willowbrook, including Bernard Carabello, the film's speaker and the person known as "Father of the Self-Advocacy Movement."

Carabello was originally sent to Willowbrook because he had cerebral palsy and was thought to be retarded. He spent 18 years at the facility.

"Self-advocacy is telling other people what you want," Platt said. "It's liberating, and you gain respect by having a choice."

Platt went on to note that the newest part of the self-advocacy movement is integrating people with disabilities into society instead of keeping them on the periphery, as they were in the days of institutions like Willowbrook.

"He's securing rights and opportunities for people with disabilities," Platt said of Carabello.

For more information on the film festival, visit the Web site at www. disabilityfilmfestival. org.

The Museum of disABILITY History's goal is to advance the understanding, acceptance and independence of people with disabilities.

The museum's exhibits, collections, archives and educational programs create awareness and a platform for dialogue and discovery.

It is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or by appointment. Admission is free. For information, visit the Web site www.museumofdisability.org or call 817-7261.