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2015 Film Festival

Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival

Film Fest logo. A blue handy man leaning forward holds a green video camera. The wheel of his wheelchair forms the C in the phrase Cinema Touching Disability.

November 6-7, 2015
Alamo Drafthouse Village

^{2700 W. Anderson Ln., Austin, TX 78757 (map)}

2015 Competition Results

A movie poster reading Menkes Disease: Finding Help and Hope. Red and green plastic discs sit in a pile at the bottom of the poster and in the middle, paper is torn back to reveal a smiling baby.

Documentary Division

1st Place: Menkes Disease : Finding Help & Hope (dir. Daniel DeFabio)
Academy Award nominee Mary McDonnell narrates this look at a rare fatal genetic disorder called Menkes Disease. It prevents boys from metabolizing copper. Boys who get treatment in the first ten days of life can have long and relatively normally lives. If the disease is not detected and treated that early their lives are much shorter and far from normal. This short documentary aims to explain some of the basics of the disease and treatment but also provide context with examples from three families across the globe showing that there is life after this terrible diagnosis. And that life is more joyful and hopeful than you might expect. View trailer and learn more about Menkes Disease: Finding Help & Hope

2nd Place: The Big Decisions (dir. John Finn)
The Big Decisions is a personal documentary featuring Director John Finn and his family as they explore their decisions to give their daughter a cochlear implant. View The Big Decisions

3rd Place & Audience Favorite: Deborah's Letter (dir. Koby Adom)
Deborah's Letter is about a 17-year-old girl from London with Spina Bifida, a developmental congenital disorder, who writes a letter to God about her life detailing where she came from, what she is doing now, and where her future lies. Learn more about Deborah's Letter

Non-documentary Division

Close up on a young woman's face with strands of blonde hair and green eyes. She has green blankets pulled up to her nose and stares directly at the camera. 1st Place: Guest Room (dir. Josh Tate)
A young woman with Down Syndrome grapples with questions of intimacy, identity, and motherhood after an unplanned pregnancy with her boyfriend.

View trailer and learn more about Guest Room

2nd Place: Amazing Judith and the Wall of Difference (dir. Julien Verge')
Judith, a girl with multiple disabilities, attempts to reach out beyond her isolated world and make contact with a new friend.

3rd Place & Audience Favorite: Work Mate (dir. Genevieve Clay-Smith)
When an introverted office worker is invited by a new colleague with a vision impairment to go cycling, he tries desperately to find a way out of it.