In July of 2020, the Miles Nadal JCC with ReelAbilities Film Festival Toronto offered an online introductory course in filmmaking for youth with disabilities. Twenty students attended a three-part workshop and some went on to one-on-one sessions for more in-depth individual instruction. In addition to learning technical familiarization, tips for filming and storytelling technique, these participants were interviewed about their experience of the pandemic.
The goal of the program is to empower participants with the tools and knowledge to tell their own stories.
Learn more about the project and watch all the films at covid19storiesmnjcc.com
This program is presented by the Miles Nadal JCC and ReelAbilities Film Festival Toronto.
In 2016, the American-born ReelAbilities Film festival crossed the border and launched in Toronto, Ontario, making this the first official international chapter of RAFF.
Now in our fifth year, ReelAbilities Toronto Film Festival is proud to showcase Canadian and International shorts, features, and documentaries about Deaf and disability cultures and by filmmakers and actors with disabilities and/or who are Deaf.
Over the past 5 years, ReelAbilities Film Festival Toronto has launched programs alongside producing the festival in the spring of each year. Programs such as the ReelAccess/CinemAccessible Guide and the Sandra Carpenter ReelAbilities Toronto Film Festival Student Film Contest have helped build this Toronto festival into a mainstay of the city’s disability and cinematic fabric. Our ReelEducation program has brought films and lesson plans about equity and inclusion into 118 schools across the province, in 28 schoolboards.
COVID-19 through a Disability Lens: Storytelling and Filmmaking Project is made possible by the generous support of the Government of Ontario.
