Celebrating diversity

First film festival dedicated to screening work by dyslexic and neurodivergent story-makers is launched.

by Amber Wilkinson

DYSPLA International Moving Image Festival
DYSPLA International Moving Image Festival
This week sees the start of the first film festival dedicated to screening the visual innovation of dyslexic and neurodivergent story-makers, running from March 14-18 at the The Crypt Gallery in London.

DYSPLA International Moving Image Festival aims to blur the lines between the traditional film festival format and the art gallery experience, while exploring the definition of the ‘dyslexic aesthetic’.

Video Artist D-Fuse has created a multi-channel transparent screen and smoke installation and moving image film, ‘FIGHT’, produced by DYSPLA and co-directed with Lennie Varvarides and Kazimir Bielecki.

The gallery space will feature video projectors, smoke and multiple films playing simultaneously. The audio for the films will only be available via radio transmitter. Every audience member will receive a personal miniature radio on entering the space - which they will use as an audio guide, to navigate through the gallery, in search of each ‘story’.

A spokeswoman said: "We want the audience to experience what it feels like to be neurodivergent; how it feels to be disoriented and to accept the organised chaos as their ‘right of passage’ into their own extraordinary imagination.

"Here is our artistic experiment: will the audience create their own narrative to make sense of the work, or will they, like an obedient soul, look for the original story?"

The festival will screen the work of more than 20 neurodivergent filmmakers, opening with an Awards Ceremony on March 14, followed by the panel discussion on the dyslexic aesthetic on March 15, chaired by Deborah Williams of the Creative Diversity Network.

For more details on the festival and to buy tickets, visit the official site.

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