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Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival

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November 6-7, 2015
Alamo Drafthouse Village

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

The Coalition of Texans with Disabilities (CTD) is proud to host the Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival and Short Film Competition. This annual event shines a spotlight on films that positively and accurately represent disability. The festival continually serves as a unique and entertaining way of dispelling common misperceptions about disability.

In 2015, we were proud to feature A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story and Right Footed. We returned to the Alamo Drafthouse Village the first weekend of November, 2015. Stay in touch as we wind down this year's Festival: follow us on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to Cinema Touching Disability News, our monthly e-newsletter (it's free)!

Cinema Touching Disability Founder and Coordinator William Greer (left) and actor Aaron Beelner, star of 2014 Film Festival feature, The Little Tin Man.

After twelve successful years, Cinema Touching Disability maintains its status as the top cinematic celebration of disability in the state. The Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities, the Austin Mayor's Committee on People with Disabilities, the Texas Film Commission, the Austin Film Society and many others have praised and recognized the festival's mission and success. The Short Film Competition provides an opportunity for independent filmmakers from around the world to screen their own films about disability, from documentaries to animated shorts to the avant-garde.

In 2015, the Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival focused our lens on strong women with disabilities. The two feature films, A Brave Heart: the Lizzie Velasquez Story and Right Footed, are documentaries about two women who have made accomplishments that most people find surprising because of their disabilities.

CTD selected these films because they show that having a disability doesn’t prevent remarkable achievement and bringing meaning to one's own life. Along the way, the films' subjects have also touched the lives of other people, bringing their positivity to the world. In A Brave Heart, Lizzie Velasquez goes from being viciously bullied because of her disability- an extremely rare condition that prevents her from gaining weight- to building a life and career as a nationally recognized anti-bullying advocate. In Right Footed, Jessica Cox becomes a licensed pilot despite being born without arms. In fact, when she goes flying, she prefers to wear a t-shirt that says “Look Ma, No Hands!”

Read more about the history of the Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival and Short Film Competition.