Meet Sarah Collins, AN/OTHER Film Festival’s Program Curator
This is Sarah’s third year programming short films for AN/OTHER Film Festival. She previously worked in the performing arts as a composer, musician, and arts manager/festival coordinator, but has spent the last few years as a volunteer coordinator and training facilitator in the community sector. When asked to select films for the 2021 Festival Sarah saw an exciting opportunity to combine old skills with her love of short film.
We sat down with Sarah to chat about this year’s festival.
This will be your third festival program, what have you enjoyed most about the mammoth task of selecting films?
Getting to see and choose from such a range of different films. From when I start seriously looking at programming to this point I’ve seen several hundred, and sometimes up to a thousand, short films.
I look at what’s been screened at some of the best-known international film festivals but we also do an open call for submissions and get some absolute gems. In this year’s festival we have a couple of films that have been to Sundance but there are also submissions from people making ultra-short, no-budget films at home that are amazing. One such this year is “Mr Martino”, which lasts only 73 seconds but packs a real punch. When I first watched it, I laughed for longer than it took to watch the film!
What things are you looking for when you’re selecting films for the program?
The main thing is to program films I enjoy and which I hope audiences will also enjoy. It’s also important that the portrayal of disability comes from a place of lived experience or at least understanding. This is quite different from many mainstream portrayals of disability which often show is as a deficit, rather than part of the great diversity of human experience.
What’s been the most challenging thing?
Trying to represent as many different experiences of disability as possible, whether that’s different types of disability or films from countries which see disability quite different ways to how we do in Australia. This is where being a short film festival is great because, over just three programs, we have almost 40 films from 12 different countries featuring many different experiences of disability told in drama, comedy, documentary, and experimental styles.
What’s different about the 2024 festival?
This year I’ve focused strongly on achieving broad representation including putting together our first ever program of queer films. I’m really excited to be able to show audiences the diversity of both disability and queer identities and the intersection between the two.
Tell us about some of your favourite selections this year
I feel like I shouldn’t have favourites! I like all the films for different reasons. The three films from the Kimberley Supports collection tell beautiful personal stories; Fitting looks at the relationship between an amputee and the person who makes her prosthetic legs, which is something I haven’t seen before; and Turn Up The Bass introduces us to the world of Deaf Rave which I think will be new to a lot of people. I’m also a sucker for good animation and we’re showing three films from festival guest Steven Fraser, as well as an ultra-short and simple German animation about the effects of war and the visually stunning “The Body is a House of Familiar Rooms”, which superimposes and enmeshes live action with gorgeous animated effects.
What are you hoping that audiences take away from this year’s festival?
I think (and hope) it’s different for different people. I want people with disability to see our experiences on screen – our stories told by us. I also want everyone attending to be able to get a glimpse of an experience outside their own, and I’d love for people who have limited or no experience of disability to see stories that might make them think differently. I love to hear people’s opinions of the films we show – whether they loved them or hated them! I’ll be at all the screenings and encourage people to come and talk to me afterwards, whether you agree with my choices or not.
