World Deaf and Disabled Dance Film Festival

World Deaf and Disabled Dance Film Festival
Dedicated in memoriam to
Patty Berne, Mel Chua, & Alice Wong

The World Deaf and Disabled Dance Film Festival brings together Deaf communities, Disabled communities, and those who proudly live within both worlds. Wait plus Dance world and Film World is coming together as well!!

The festival is led by Antoine Hunter (Purple Fire Crow) and Zahna Simon, both Deaf and Disabled artists, and is grounded in values of access, authenticity, and cultural representation.

Where the space for us? Below there more about how this got started but what more important. There was no place for us! Update.. If need our help - email us!

In response, Antoine Hunter and Zahna Simon decided to create a separate space dedicated specifically to dance film made by Deaf and Disabled artists.

The World Deaf and Disabled Dance Film Festival was created to give Deaf and Disabled dance filmmakers a place to show their work. Give Deaf and Disabled artists a place to share their stories, their movement, and their truth.

The festival welcomes dance-based films, including short and longer works, across documentary, narrative, experimental, and dance animation forms, as long as movement and dance are central, and the work is created by Deaf and Disabled artists.

The artists are welcomes dance-based films of all lengths, including short and feature works, across documentary, narrative, experimental, dance, and animation forms.

We embrace a broad and inclusive understanding of dance.

Dance may be:
• performance
• storytelling through the body
• singing and signing language song with DANCE.
• rhythm, editing, or camera movement
• or movement embedded within a larger life journey

A film does not need to be 100% dance-focused, but strongly involved.

For example, a story may follow a Deaf person’s journey—through mental health, healing, competition, or life experience—where dance appears throughout the story as part of their identity. Even if dance is not constant, its presence, influence, and connection to the story is important. Go a head apply weather you are new to this or been doing this for a long time.

We welcome films where movement is present, meaningful, and connected to the story, even if it is not the only focus.

We welcome artists and filmmakers who identify as, including but not limited to:
• Deaf
• Hard of Hearing
• DeafBlind
• DeafDisabled
• Disabled
• or collaborators working in authentic partnership with these communities

We welcome artists and filmmakers who identify as, including but not limited to::
• Physically Disabled
• Neurodivergent
• Chronically Ill
• Living with mental health disabilities
• Blind or Low Vision
• Developmentally Disabled
• Intellectually Disabled
• Cognitively Disabled
• Learning Disabled
• Sensory Disabled
• Mobility Disabled
• Immunocompromised
• Living with chronic pain
• Autistic
• ADHD
• People with unseen or invisible disabilities

This includes a wide range of lived experiences, including physical disability, neurodivergence, chronic illness, and mental health as part of disability identity.

Since 2018, Deaf and Disabled artists from around the world have been sharing dance films through the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival platform.

After 2020 — and especially after 2022 — when festivals returned to in-person formats, most audiences member no longer wanted to watch dance films during live dance events. At BAIDDF, most people wanted only live dance during in-person performances, not film.

At the same time, while serving as panelists for other film festivals, Antoine Hunter and Zahna Simon noticed that many Deaf, Disabled, and BIPOC dance films were being rejected. These films were often dismissed simply because they centered dance, Deaf-centered experience, disability, or embodied storytelling.

In response, Antoine Hunter and Zahna Simon decided to create a separate space dedicated specifically to dance film made by Deaf and Disabled artists.

The festival is led by Antoine Hunter (Purple Fire Crow) and Zahna Simon, both Deaf and Disabled artists.

The inaugural festival will take place in person at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco, California.