PRESS RELEASE
9/12/2021
DAY 7
4th International Festival "Reflection of Disability in Art"
18: 00-21: 00
The seventh day of the 4th International Festival "Reflection of Disability in Art" began with the song "Glory to God", lyrics by IakovosKampanellisand music by MikisTheodorakis, presented by the RoDi Music Orchestra and the choir of KDAP MEA "Access" Perea.
The program continued with the screening of films about "IDENTITY-DIFFERENCE". Screenings began with the film "Inner me" directed by Antonio Spanò, "Solo" directed by ZeynelHebunGuler and "Movement" directed by Luis dos Santos Miguel. Then followed "The Secret Life of Tom Lightfoot" directed by Ray Jacobs and "Born to dance with an extra chromosome: the drag queens (and kings) with Down's syndrome" directed by Nikolay Nikolov. The screenings ended with "With my face" directed by Madalena Silva Carlos.
Then, the moderator of the discussion, Mrs. Vlachou Anastasia, Professor at the Pedagogical Department of Special Education of the University of Thessaly welcomed and thanked all the participants of the festival. She commented that the common denominator she found in the 6 documentaries - short films - were the multiple dimensions of identity. She stated that our identity is bornthrough identity and empirical intersections, complex intersections, with no sure result. Through them, however, diversity emerges, which is the new regularity.
The floor was then given to the speakers, Mrs. Katsigianni Aglaia, President of the Association of Paraplegics of Drama and Mr. KitsiosAntonios, Founder & Coordinator of AUThors. Mrs. Katsigiannithanked for the invitation and talked about disability as a way of life. She commented on the annual organization of the festival as wonderful and presented a video entitled "Social model animation". Mr. Kitsios also thanked for the invitation and referred to the ambition of the disabled people shown in the films, to overcome the social difficulties, that is, to surpass what society offers them. He commented that they choose to be exposed in a structurally inhospitable environment with the whole range of their identities, that is, the interdisciplinarity that characterizes the diversity between the protagonists.
Afterwards, the audience participated actively in the discussion with their questions. These concerned the sexual identification of the disabled, the difficulties of transgender and disability, the emancipation of the disabled and what identity is for male and female speakers.
Closing the discussion the chair thanked the participants, the contributors and of course the interpreter.
(Read the trancript).
