Changing the Focus with Disability Arts Cymru

Changing the Focus was a short film made by Ben Ewart-Dean with a group from Hijinx Academy and learning disabled individuals, who share their personal stories illustrated by photos from their own archive.

Outcomes

• The benefit to the participants who were asked about  the  representation  of  disabled  people  in film for the first time. Having a safe environment in which to express their views and discuss the issues that arose from watching the archive footage.
• The filmmaking skills the young learning disabled adults learned from participating in the project. Also, the experiences gained from being involved in assisting of the running of the dissemination events.
• The discussions the screening of the finished film provoked in raising awareness around a number of issues relating to the lives of learning disabled people in Wales today.

Successes

The major success of the project was the quality of the final film that was produced. At the screenings people were impressed with both the quality of the film and the content. Even people who have worked with the participants  were  surprised  at  how  articulate  they were in discussing their feelings and attitudes towards the archive footage. We have been very pleased with the positive feedback we have received as to the films capability of raising awareness, of the issues covered and also the abilities of the participants.