The first Russian International Disability Film Festival (MOSFEST), entitled "Breaking Down Barriers," will take place in Moscow from September 26 to 29.
The festival will provide disabled Russians with their first wide exposure to documentaries about people with a variety of disabilities. It also aims at raising awareness in Moscow and partner communities about disability issues and to promote a more positive image of disabled people throughout the media.
Perspektiva, a Russian disability organization, together with the Moscow City Hall, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection and the World Institute on Disability, are organizing the event.
Organizers hope the festival will increase media coverage of disability issues and events. The festival is also intended to stimulate interest in the film and media community in Russia and former Soviet states, and to lead to collaboration with disabled people.
Documentaries and public service announcements, produced by Russian and producers in former Soviet states and portraying a disability issue, are being submitted for a competition at the festival.
Festival organizers are also seeking experienced persons to lead workshops on topics, such as "Changing Attitudes through Film," "Impact of Film on Society", "The Image of People with Disabilities in Film" and "Films concerning Disabled Children". Suggestions on other workshop topics are welcomed. Rehabilitation International (RI) and the World Institute on Disability will sponsor the workshops.
Since its creation in 1997, Perspektiva has carried out more than 15 projects, all with a media component, and have attempted to raise awareness in the community about disability. It has also produced and aired public service announcements, short training films and a film on "Equal Rights to Access" that featured local disabled youth activists.
The festival is part of a one-year project on Disability and Media aimed at changing the way media portray disabled people. The project is being implemented in four cities: Baku, Erevan, Tbilisi and Moscow, and is funded by the Open Society Institute (OSI), Budapest. It includes disability awareness training to develop a strategy for working more effectively with journalists on disability issues and testing the strategy by conducting several public education activities.
For more information on MOSFEST, or to download an application form, see Perspekiva's site: www.perspektiva-inva.da.ru or contact Denise Roza droza at online.ru, or Olga Drozdova mscwid at online.ru.
(May 8, 2002)
<http://www.ijnet.org/Archive/2002/5/10-12459.html> -- Yoshie
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