Projects in genres: Disabilities

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Through interweaving dance and dialogue, Material Bodies is a sensual and cinematic look at the relationship between amputees and their limbs. This visceral and colourful short film explores how a prosthetic leg can be more like a piece of jewellery, a dance companion, or a part of you.

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A documentary exploring the Norfolk Mental Health service through the experience of 10 patients impacted by waiting lists that can run for years.

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Idiot or genius, Arthur, homeless outsider spends most of his days in the book shop. Ironically the "idiot" has a knowledge of the world of music and film far greater than any random customer in that shop. Everyone is running around the vanity fair of the huge shopping mall, while Arthur hides behind book stores reading and learning stories from the world. The modern alien, whom everyone calls an idiot, lives in the outskirt of reality but it seems that the world around is incapable of embracing his wisdom. He wanders around the modern jungle city, trying to find his humanity which everyday is taken away from him. He is attacked or humiliated to what he responds with the most eloquent language learnt from books. A portrait of a man who chooses to be free on the streets, and has no place where he belongs.

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Leading scientist and OCD-sufferer, Dr Beth Anderson breaks into a high security compound in the dead of night and risks losing everything to save a colleague from an out-of-date sandwich.

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A young woman struggling to process her recent Aspergers diagnosis finds an empowering, magical talent for animation.

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Since the 1950's wireless signals have been banned in Green Bank to protect its radio telescope from interference. With no cell phones and no wifi, the small Appalachian town has attracted a number of people that claim to suffer from Electro Hypersensitivity seeking respite from the modern world. This is the story of the peculiar relationship between these people, the small town folk, and the massive radio telescope in the middle of it all, aimed at the sky above. Official Selection IDFA 2020 - Competition for Mid-Length Documentary - World premiere

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Florist Clara relies on touch, sound and smell. She has recently been chatting with Art student Simon on a dating app. Clara and Simon look forward to meeting in person. However, Clara hasn't told him about her limited sight leading to an unexpected situation during their first date.

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Based on the book 'The Reason I Jump' written by Naoki Higashida, a non-verbal autistic Japanese boy. Translated from Japanese in 2013 by acclaimed novelist David Mitchell, the book is now a worldwide bestseller, offering an illuminating and life-enhancing guide to Planet Autism – a planet that has very different laws from the one most inhabit. The book, written when its author was unknown and only 13, is now a bestseller in 27 languages, and has become one of the world’s most widely-read guides to Autism, offering an extraordinary passport to another world. The book's question-and-answer format gives a remarkable insight into the thoughts and feelings of an autistic person who cannot talk; a Rosetta stone that allows us to hear what it’s like to be autistic. This feature documentary is a cinematic translation of the experiences revealed in the book, weaving Naoki’s writings around stories of non-verbal autistic people across the globe, immersing us in their unique sensory worlds, full of intensity, richness, and beauty - and sometimes shadows and terror. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2020 - World Cinema Documentary Competition - World premiere Grierson Awards 2022 - Winner - Best Single Documentary – International

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A day in the lives of a 12-year-old kid with special needs and his 14 year-old-sister, when she chooses to be the motherly figure in her brother's life, unlike all the days up until that moment, when she thought it was forced on her.

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A short observational documentary following the unique and beautiful relationship between a blind woman, Megan, and her guide dog, Layla. The film follows them through a day in their life.

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A disabled man finds love and hope in his neighbour through the confinement of his bedroom window.

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Takako Shirawa has spent the last 36 years creating an extraordinary day centre for autistic people in Abeno, Osaka. Nestling on a quiet neighbourhood corner, Atelier Corners began life as a family run sanctuary for local autistic children and has developed into a pioneering site of artistic experiment with its members becoming renowned artists, exhibited in Japan and worldwide. Award winning artist and filmmaker Richard Butchins (himself disabled) visited the centre with disabled dancer Kazuyo Morita and spent two years documenting and creating an award winning video installation about the artists and their home. This film shows the artists, the art and the woman that made it possible. It’s a testament to integration and the remarkable minds of the people that inhabit the building that is Atelier Corners. The film is part documentary and part artists’ moving image, a reflective and thoughtful account exploring the experience of disability in Japan, what is positive in the act of creation and the struggle against social exclusion, and how to foster and nurture the spirit of human life in a country that has traditionally excluded and hidden its disabled population from view.