A message from SDSW steering committee chair in training, Sara Egarr

Hi Sara Here 

Welcome to the middle of 2022.

This year the SDSW committee has had a lot of fun with a little bit of work included. We have been working on a new look for this year’s festival, new ideas for our merchandise and endless discussions on the importance of colour.

But for the most part the Sit Down Shutup and Watch committee has been working on getting submissions for our upcoming festival in October.

We have been questioning what makes a good film and trying to update thequestions we pose accordingly. This will help us decide what content we include in this year’s festival.

 Our broad theme for this festival is the history of the disability rights movement, a topic that is constantly evolving; we will also explore the related topic of ableism and the way it impacts persons living with a disability. To this end we are currently seeking a keynote speaker who can speak to this and this person might be you.

We have also been talking about how we can make the Sit Down Shut up and Watch website even more accessible, any suggestions and/or ideas can be emailed to suzanne.merrall@tutti.org.au.

And to help with the massive job of film watching we will be enlisting the help of some friends, so watch this space...

The Film Festival 2022 will be both online and in person. We haven’t quite decided everything yet but it’s certain that the Best of Fest Awards will be face-to-face (well 1.5 metres apart), location still to be decided but it will definitely be an opportunity to celebrate screen creations made by artists with learning disability and it will be heaps of fun.

Sara Egarr (Chair in training)