The Locarno Film Festival keeps broadening its doors, its gaze and its editions for an event that aims to be more welcoming than ever. An essential collaboration in this regard is (and will be) the one with Pro Infirmis, which has started to help the Festival building an even more inclusive edition. The goal is to make the Festival feel like home for people with difficulties related to hearing, sight, mobility, cognitive or mental disorders, and age. A home where gender, age, religion and cultures are nothing more than the ingredients of an increasingly rich and educational sharing experience.
In this sense, the Festival confirmed and improved long standing projects, especially related to mobility and technological support for people with hearing impairments. An example of this is the successful collaboration with Regards Neufs, thanks to which five films of Locarno75 will be available with audio description for the visually impaired and and subtitles for people who are hard of hearing on the free application Greta:
Besides, Locarno75 will be even more accessible during the evenings in the Rotonda by la Mobiliare, which has been conceived with an inclusive participation in mind, and providing support to all those in need, thanks to volunteers from Pro Infirmis Ticino and Moesano who will be on-site on August 5-7, 9-10, and 12. These initiatives will come to life during Locarno75 thanks to the brand new appointment of a person in charge of Diversity and Inclusion: Sara Bellicini, who was willing and able to take these new steps, and from now on will ensure concrete, continuous commitment to finding solutions and sharing a sensitivity that will make the Festival an increasingly welcoming workplace and event.
Locarno75’s new projects include three relaxed screenings, on August 9-12. It’s a different way to experience cinema, to be tested with the audience with a view to the future. The relaxed screenings will offer, to those who may benefit from it, a more relaxed environment, in a smaller venue, where the lights will remain low, the volume will be turned slightly down, and it will be possible to leave the room and return during the screening, as well as move or make noise if necessary, with no fear of bothering others. These are the three relaxed screenings scheduled during the Festival:
On Sunday, August 7, at 5.15 PM at the Forum @Spazio Cinema, Cuban director Daniela Muñoz Barroso, whose film Umbra is playing in the Open Doors shorts program, singer and Outlyer founder Emmanuel Kelly and Brazilian actor Giovanni Venturini will share their experience on working in the audiovisual industry with what is generally considered to be a disability and, together with Melanie Hoyes (Industry Inclusion Executive at the BFI) and Paola Pitton, from Pro Infirmis “Culture inclusive” service, will explore new and enriching possibilities of inclusion. The conversation, which will be moderated by Danielle Turkov and also livestreamed on the Festival website, will be in English, with simultaneous translation in Italian, French and Italian sign language. Additionally, thanks to Microsoft’s support and technologies, an automatic transcription of the conversation will be displayed in real time on the screen behind the panelists and will also be accessible on mobile devices via a web browser.
The Panelists:
The conversation will be moderated by Danielle Turkov, founder and CEO of Think-Film Impact Production.
