The second annual Reelabilities film festival was held this past weekend in the NY metropolitan area. The festival’s mission statement cites “dedication to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities.” In addition to award-winning films the weekend’s events included discussions and other special programs intended to “bring together the community to explore, discuss and celebrate the diversity of our shared human experience.”

On Friday, January 29th, the trailer for forthcoming Icarus-affiliated film Crooked Beauty, “a poetic documentary that explores positive and compassionate models for transforming the experience of madness in our culture” was screened at NYU. This event marked the first and thus far only inclusion of “mental illness” in the disability-themed festival.  Following the excerpt, film subject and The Icarus Project co-founder Ashley McNamara, joined by longtime Icarista Jonah Bossewich and collective coordinator Annie Robinson, facilitated a panel discussion on how madness fits in (and sometimes doesn’t) to the disability model.

The panelists and the audience (of around 70 people) engaged in conversations around madness & creativity, divers-ability & normality, mutual aid & biomedical psychiatry, stigma & suffering. Almost a hundred people from many walks of life filled the theater – Icarus allies, students, activists, mental health care providers, film fanatics, young and older generations. The discussion started with the panelists’ personal stories, theories about alternative care, and touched upon many realms that mental health involves: politics, economics, medical models, art worlds, educational systems, etc. Audience members subsequently shared their stories, of their own struggles and triumphs, and posed questions about how to help and understand loved ones who experience madness in some form or other. It proved a stimulating, insightful, and mutually beneficial occasion for all present! Special thanks to long time Icarus ally and festival coordinator Anita Altman for all of her encouragement and support. Here’s hoping next year’s festival will feature a full-length screening of the finalized film (expected completion March 2010; slated to be shown at the Ann Arbor film festival later this year).