The Other Film Festival (TOFF), an Australian festival dedicated to Deaf and Disability-led films, is exploring resistance and its many forms in the 2023 program.
All films chosen for 2023’s Resistance screenings are made by Deaf and Disabled people, either as key creatives, collaborators, and/or performers. TOFF is proudly disability-led, with a festival team including Artistic Director Fiona Tuomy and curatorial/advisory team including Kath Duncan, CB Mako and Fury.
‘TOFF is thrilled to present Resistance,’ said Tuomy. ‘The films in this program reveal all sorts of
resistance. This includes seven Australian short films with Deaf and Disabled people in key
creative roles.
‘The recent Seeing Ourselves 2 Report by Screen Australia shows the shockingly low representation of Deaf and Disabled people in the Australian screen sector. Resistance is Deaf and Disabled people having power and agency in telling our own stories to audiences, and especially the mainstream Australian screen industry. Deaf and Disabled writers, directors, and producers have great ideas…and should be employed!’
Read: All Silent Dogs and other disability-led films to screen at The Other Film Festival
‘Resistance is wild!’, co-curator Kath Duncan said. ‘Brace yourselves. Like one of the artists
says in Beyond I Wanna Go (2022, USA) “We are something wonderful, something you can
see the future with”.’
This weekend, all films in the TOFF 2023 program will be available online to stream for free via ACMI’s Cinema 3. All films come with audio description and closed captions.
TOFF 2023 films of resistance
- All Silent Dogs (2022, Australia) A teenage girl is faced with a choice: give up her ability to transform into a dog, or face the stigma and societal consequences of keeping it.
- Beyond… I Wanna Go (2022, USA) A fun and bold documentary celebrating 10 years of Beyond Trend Fashion Shows. Disabled artists from Creative Growth in California rock the runway.
- Blockhead and Sparkles and the Flood of Tears (2021, Australia) Best friends, Blockhead and Sparkles, are struggling under the pressure of running their own cake shop, but when the Sad Prince’s tears threaten to flood the entire village, they must do what they can to mend their friendship and save the day.
- Deafuturama (2021, Australia) A utopian vision of a fully accessible world in different spheres of society.
- Is There Anybody Out There? (2023, UK) A Disabled filmmaker who inhabits and loves her unusual body searches the world for another person like her. Exploring what it takes to love oneself fiercely despite the pervasiveness of ableism.
- Mine Mine Mine (2022, Australia) A powerfully beautiful short film which subverts the Peter Pan myth to explore a Disabled man’s experience of the world.
- Songbirds (2022, Australia) A young, hard-of-hearing violinist auditioning for a music school in Ukraine is haunted by past memories.
- The Tuba Thieves (2023, USA) An acclaimed experimental documentary asks what does it mean to listen.
- Under My Tongue, Under My Hands (2023, Australia) A Deaf led exploration of the everyday world. This film turns eight prompts into dance-like movements. Speech, sign, subtitle, and Auslan explore how everyone responds to stories.
- When The Sky Was Blue (2021, Australia) One Sunday, 10-year-old Leah experiences small but striking moments of longing and loss.
You can stream the films of The Other Film Festival on Cinema 3 between 23 November and 7 December.
