Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival Expands for 2010

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Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival logo

The Coalition of Texans with Disabilities has expanded this year's1 Cinema Touching Disability (CTD) Film Festival, which takes place in Austin in October. For the festival's seventh year, it's adding a Thursday evening screening at the Goodwill Community Center, as well as art exhibits from Imagine Art and VSA arts of Texas. These local nonprofit organizations support people with disabilities with learning, participating in, and enjoying the arts. As always, the short film competition for grades 6-12 and college categories will take place, with finalists' entries screening at the festival. Competition registration is open until August 31.

The CTD Film Festival takes place from Thursday night, October 14, through Saturday, October 16. I'm excited to see the SXSW award-winning documentary Marwencol as the opening-night film on Thursday, although I would prefer to see it for the first time on a real theater screen at the festival's main venue, Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. It will be interesting to see how the Goodwill Community Center works as a film venue. The documentary's subject, Mark Hogencamp, definitely fits in with the Goodwill's program of rehabilitation. Hogencamp suffered traumatic brain injuries after an attack outside a bar. His self-created unorthodox therapy is quite fascinating -- in his backyard, Hongencamp has created Marwencol, a 1/6th scale World War II-era town populated with dolls representing friends, family and even his attackers. Through his photographic images, Hogencamp documents the town’s miniature battles and dramas. Check out Jette's review to find out what she thought about this film.

Melissa Stockwell of Warrior ChampionsOn Friday, the CTD Film Festival moves to its regular stomping grounds at Alamo South Lamar. The feature film of the evening is Warrior Champions, an inspirational and compelling story about a group of severely wounded U.S. soldiers -- including Melissa Stockwell, seen in photo to the right -- who are pursuing their Olympic dreams. The film follows the soldiers/athletes as they compete for a spot on the U.S. Paralympic team, in time for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. A highlight of the evening will most certainly be the guest speaker, Paralympic Gold Medal Coach James Gumbert of Team USA. I missed this film as well at the 2009 Austin Film Festival, so definitely adding to my "must-see" film list. Learn more about these inspirational athletes at the film's official website.

Saturday's festival highlight is Temple Grandin, filmed locally and starring Claire Danes -- read Jenn's thoughts on the film when it screened in Austin. This feature film portrays Grandin, a young woman with autism, and the challenges she faced. Grandin has an amazing understanding of animal behavior, resulting in a revolution of the cattle industry. CTD Film Festival will present an exclusive interview with Dr. Temple Grandin as she speaks with Executive Director Dennis Borel about the film and autism advocacy.

Another screening I'm really looking forward to at this year's Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival is the animated TV series Laser Beak Man, created by Tim Sharpe, a 21-year-old artist who was diagnosed with autism at age three. This series portrays the adventures of a red-beaked superhero with a cheeky sense of humor. Sharpe will make a guest appearance at Saturday night's screening.

Tickets for the CTD Film Festival aren't on sale yet, but we'll keep you posted so you can be sure to buy tickets early. This event sells out in advance, and this year's features and additions will ensure standing room only. The full schedule is available here.