On July 8th and July 9th, ACCESS:HORROR 2023 will kick of its inaugural festival and summit in the virtual space. It will be a celebration of the history, impact, and future of disability in genre cinema with a combination of films, filmmaker Q&A's, and live, interactive panels. The festival offers three blocks of short films curated by Fantastic Fest, Final Girls Berlin, and Superfest Disability Film Festival, along with other bonus content. The summit offers twelve panels on a wide variety of topics, from the History of Horror, to Speculative Stories to Change the World. ACCESS:HORROR is sponsored by the George A. Romero Foundation (GARF).
This year has 16 films total from a wide range of countries, spread across three specially curated blocks along with filmmaker Q&A's and bonus content. The films include Our First Priority, written and directed by the festival's director, and Tiffany Kimmel's Everybody Goes to the Hospital, using stop-motion animation to tell a story infused with darkness and doctors. Director Juliet Romeo's Cooptation tells a blood-soaked tale about beauty products through a BIPOC lens. The horror of state and governmental control of disabled bodies, aided by the ominous presence of AI, finds a voice in Rebekah Fortune's Bebe AI, and Camille Hollett-French's FREYA. All films are provided with captioning, while the Superfest Disability Film Festival block also includes audio description.
The summit will feature 45 prominent figures, comprising noted horror filmmakers and disability advocates, who will share conversations about the role of disability and genre together in advocating for change within filmmaking, institutions, and society as a whole. The festival will include special appearances by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Marvel's Moon Knight, Something In The Dirt), Brea Grant (Torn Hearts, 12 Hour Shift). Amanda Kramer (Give Me Pity!, Please Baby Please), Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place), and Phil Nobile, Jr., the editor of FANGORIA who will preside over the closing panel.
Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased at accesshorror.com or through the event portal on Eventive. In the interests of accessibility, ticket prices have been kept very low. An all-access pass to all 12 panels and all 16 films, including filmmaker Q&A's and other bonus content, is $20.
For tickets and information: www.accesshorror.com
For any questions, please contact: info@accesshorror.com
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