0:13

From Vision Australia. This is talking

0:15

vision. And

0:18

now here's your host, Sam

0:20

Collins.

0:23

Hello everyone. It's great to be here

0:25

with you. And for the next half

0:27

hour we talk matters of blindness

0:29

and low vision.

0:30

Running is possible for

0:32

everyone, but even a lot of races,

0:35

if you don't actually run, you can

0:37

walk. A lot of races like the New York Marathon

0:39

has really lenient cutoff time. So

0:41

there are people who walked the whole New York Marathon.

0:44

So, you know, the running community is just

0:46

a great community. There's

0:49

not a lot of judgment. We're there for each

0:51

other, to support each other,

0:53

regardless of how fast or slow we

0:55

do things.

0:56

Welcome to the program. This week

0:58

we hear from Claudia Stevenson,

1:00

a marathon runner who, along with her

1:03

guide, recently took part

1:05

in and completed the New York Marathon.

1:08

You'll hear from her with a

1:10

voice that's familiar to some people, I'm

1:12

sure Matt Leigh as he caught

1:14

up with Claudia to chat all about

1:16

it. Then later on, you'll

1:18

hear from Conrad Browne. He caught up

1:20

with artistic director of the

1:23

other film festival, Fiona Twohey.

1:25

The festival overlapped as well

1:27

with the celebration of International

1:30

Day for people with disabilities

1:32

on the 3rd of December. I

1:35

hope you'll enjoy this week's episode

1:37

of Talking Vision. And

1:44

now here's Matt Ley with Claudia

1:46

Stephenson.

1:47

We're joined by Claudia Stephenson,

1:49

an active member of Achilles

1:52

Melbourne who recently took

1:54

on the New York Marathon and completed

1:56

it. And today we have Claudia

1:59

on the line. Thanks for joining us, Claudia.

2:00

No problem. I'm glad to be here, Matt.

2:02

What are the current emotions for

2:04

you after? What was

2:06

an amazing experience?

2:08

I just feel so proud.

2:11

I've put in a lot of hard work over the last

2:13

12 months, and to

2:15

have completed the marathon

2:18

and done a lot better than

2:20

what I expected, I just yes,

2:22

so proud of myself. It's been a huge

2:24

year while I've been training, I suppose, and

2:26

something that I hadn't ever really

2:28

thought I could do before.

2:30

Anything like these big challenges

2:32

in life. I take a lot of planning,

2:34

and you don't just wake up one day and say,

2:36

we're going to run a marathon. It takes a

2:38

lot of planning, takes a lot of research.

2:41

When did the first idea come

2:43

that you wanted to complete

2:45

the New York Marathon?

2:47

As first, I've been thinking about completing

2:49

a marathon. I'm

2:51

the last couple of years.

2:53

I am fairly recent

2:56

to running, so I joined

2:59

Achilles Melbourne about six

3:01

years ago, and before then I

3:03

really wasn't a runner. I had pretty

3:05

negative experiences of running at high

3:07

school and then, you know, sort of put it behind

3:09

me. I've been very active in my

3:11

life. You know, I've done some really long walks

3:14

and I've done other physical activities,

3:16

but I've never really been a runner and

3:18

didn't really think I was. I could be a

3:21

runner. Yeah, I sort of a few things

3:23

happened around the time that

3:25

I joined Achilles. Like I had a friend

3:27

who suggested I could do one of those catch to

3:29

five K programs. I

3:32

started taking part in parkrun

3:34

activities and I joined Achilles,

3:37

and all of those things just sort of started

3:39

me on that running journey. It's

3:41

been over time that I've, you know,

3:44

I've sort of been working towards becoming

3:46

a runner from, from definitely being a walker.

3:48

I think only this year I've really actually started

3:51

to think of myself as a, as a real runner,

3:54

even though, you know, I've completed some half marathons

3:56

and done, you know, races before.

3:59

And this year it's my mindsets

4:02

really changed. And I've really had

4:04

to realise that actually I am a runner and particularly

4:06

after finishing a marathon, I've got

4:08

no excuses anymore. I definitely have to call

4:10

myself a runner and.

4:12

Having that self-belief too is very important.

4:14

Yeah it is. I think

4:16

it's just one of those little shifts,

4:19

you know, the way that our language

4:21

influences, you know, our thoughts.

4:23

Changing that, that language and

4:25

starting to call myself a runner has been has

4:28

been really important for me.

4:30

So what sort of training did

4:32

you do over periods of

4:34

time to build up to

4:36

this big event? To say,

4:38

I'm ready to run the New York Marathon

4:41

and then take that next

4:43

forward step in and getting this support

4:45

to do so.

4:46

Yeah. So I really got

4:48

serious last November

4:50

when the the last

4:53

year's marathon was running. That

4:55

was when I really clicked and I went, yeah, I really

4:57

want to do this. I've been, you know, toughing it up for

4:59

a couple of years. In 2022,

5:02

I ran the Gold Coast Half

5:04

Marathon, and I got really

5:06

serious about doing that. And I got

5:08

a coach and she wrote me

5:10

up a really fantastic training program,

5:13

and I followed that. So it really broke

5:15

it down into these really manageable

5:17

goals that included walking, which was

5:19

really important to me, so that

5:21

I always tried to do better than what my training

5:23

program says. So if it said, you know, you're allowed

5:25

to walk for a kilometre, I'd kind of go, okay, well,

5:27

I'll try and, you know, limit my walking to

5:29

500m or I'll try and do it without

5:32

walking at all. But having that little,

5:34

you know, out was still really important

5:36

to me. And so did the Gold Coast

5:38

Half Marathon and did it really

5:41

successfully. And that really gave me confidence

5:43

that, yeah, perhaps I really

5:46

could get serious about doing

5:48

a full marathon. And

5:50

I've seen in the past that

5:53

Achilles international had really

5:55

good connections with the

5:57

New York Marathon, and there'd been some opportunities

5:59

for people to go over in the past

6:02

and participate. So I thought,

6:04

oh yeah, okay, right, I'm going to make it happen.

6:06

2023 is going to be hopefully the year.

6:08

So I approached that same

6:10

coach that would give me that training program

6:13

and I said, okay, I want to make this happen. And

6:15

I said, you know, I've heard people say, oh, you only need

6:17

16 weeks, you know, to train for the marathon.

6:19

And I was like, yeah, no, I need,

6:21

I need a year because I didn't consider

6:24

myself to be that runner. And

6:26

running wasn't a part of my life. And

6:28

at that stage I had gone

6:30

back to sort of not running. After doing the Gold

6:32

Coast Marathon, I sort of a half

6:34

marathon. I'd sort of stopped

6:36

and I decided I

6:38

really needed to, to actually get running

6:41

regularly and get running again. So. I

6:43

had to really build myself up from

6:45

from barely being able to run, you know, five

6:47

KS to, to get him to back

6:49

to those longer distances of being able to do a

6:51

half and then work up to the full. So

6:54

I got got myself a really good training

6:56

program, and I also started the process

6:58

to actually entering the New York Marathon.

7:00

So we had to enter the ballot and

7:02

have our names basically drawn out of the hat.

7:04

So I think I put my

7:06

name down in the ballot in February,

7:09

and the ballot was drawn in March, and

7:11

I was successful to actually get a place. So

7:13

then that was where it got actually serious,

7:16

and I was like, well, okay, we've really got to make this happen

7:18

now. So yeah,

7:21

just just working over the last

7:23

12 months really to, you

7:25

know, with strength. So I do

7:27

a strength class, runs a strength class

7:30

on a Wednesday night and

7:32

then also

7:35

doing workouts in the gym. So, you know,

7:37

a shorter workout on a, on a my

7:39

my workday in around my workday. So on Monday

7:41

I would go to the gym and do a shorter workout.

7:44

Then on a Friday I'd do

7:46

a sort of either a speed or a hill session,

7:49

Saturday doing parkrun and then Sunday with

7:51

my long run day. And that gradually built up

7:53

over time from, you know, sort of A5K

7:55

to the ten to the 15 to the 20

7:58

to the 23, 24, you know, and

8:00

all the way up to about 32 K's

8:02

was the longest we ever did in training before

8:04

actually doing the marathon.

8:06

When you knew that you had successfully

8:09

applied and got permission to run, did

8:11

you actually go over there for at

8:13

all prior to the marathon

8:15

to be, you know, to maybe

8:17

complete the course before you competed

8:20

in the actual marathon itself or

8:22

or did you, I suppose, talk

8:24

to others that might may have experienced

8:26

the marathon to get some hints,

8:28

some tips, just

8:31

a little bit of the pitfalls, some of the things to

8:33

be aware of and just get so

8:35

your own bearings of some things

8:37

that you needed just to gain that, that

8:39

confidence in yourself.

8:41

Oh golly, I wish I would just have the money to

8:43

just loved the States every couple of weeks. You

8:45

know, that'd be great. No, there was no chance

8:48

of me going over to the States.

8:50

Before the marathon. We'd had

8:52

another one of our members complete the marathon

8:55

last year, so we chatted to them

8:57

about their experiences, both

8:59

them and their guide about their experiences.

9:02

I have a treadmill that's

9:04

like a super duper treadmill. It's got like video

9:06

workouts, and it actually had

9:08

parts of the New York Marathon on it. So

9:10

I did sort of 30 K's

9:13

of the New York Marathon on my treadmill, and

9:15

that was pretty amazing, because you got a bit

9:17

of a taste for what the crowds were going to be like,

9:20

because, you know, you could hear the crowds and the

9:22

trainer talk to you about the,

9:25

yeah, the different locations that you were passing.

9:28

So that was pretty cool. And

9:30

then, you know, just talking to some other

9:32

people who had completed it. So I tried to

9:34

do a bit of research. Looking

9:36

back in hindsight, actually, nothing

9:39

prepares you for what

9:41

it's actually like out on course. It's completely

9:44

unlike anything. I think anyone

9:46

could have prepared that the crowds are so loud.

9:49

Yeah, and the vibe in New

9:51

York is just so intense.

9:53

You know, everyone's talking about the marathon

9:56

wherever you go. Like, it's just

9:59

amazing. It really. It's like, you know,

10:01

we talk about Melbourne, you know, the Melbourne Cup,

10:03

the race, it stops the nation. Well, you know,

10:05

the New York Marathon is the race that really stops New

10:07

York. Like everyone's just so

10:09

on board. It's yeah, it's just amazing.

10:12

What were some of the challenges doing doing

10:14

the marathon career? I mean what

10:16

were the biggest things for you? Obviously

10:19

you need resilience to be able to complete

10:21

it. There's times that you're you're doing

10:23

you're doing it in blocks of kilometers,

10:25

as you alluded to before, and you've

10:28

trained it. So there's different thoughts

10:30

going through your mind through the whole journey.

10:32

But there must be so many other challenges

10:35

within it as well.

10:36

Yeah, I learned a lot about myself

10:38

during the marathon, so

10:40

I run with a guide next

10:43

to me, and then I also have a bulldozer out

10:45

the front, and my bulldozer

10:47

was doing the best job of getting those crowds

10:49

revved up. And, you know, he was really

10:51

getting them going and like, really getting them to

10:53

cheer and whatever. And all I was thinking

10:56

was like, oh, no, please just stop. It's

10:58

just too much like there's just too much noise.

11:00

So I learned about myself. But actually,

11:02

I don't find all of that extra

11:04

noise really all that invigorating. Whereas

11:07

actually, my God, my other guy,

11:09

she was absolutely feeding off it and just

11:11

drawing so much energy from that. And I was almost

11:13

like the opposite way of like, I

11:15

just died. This is not recharging my batteries

11:17

at all, which is like draining my batteries really quickly.

11:20

So, you know, that was a really good

11:22

learning for me to take away. And,

11:25

you know, next time I'd definitely be thinking about

11:27

what I could be doing for myself to help

11:29

mitigate some of that excess

11:32

noise. Like, I love the people

11:34

actually being there. It was gorgeous. There was

11:36

like young kids giving you high fives

11:39

along the side. And I loved all of that.

11:41

And I think also for me. Having

11:43

never done a marathon. And as I said

11:45

before, you know, in our training we go up to about

11:48

32km. It was like ten

11:50

kilometers that I'd never run before.

11:52

It was like venturing into the unknown. And

11:55

and I was thinking about that in my head. I was like,

11:57

oh golly, we're coming up to 32 K's. Oh,

11:59

this is where I don't know. I don't know the rest of this, you

12:01

know, like, and I was, I was getting into my own head.

12:03

So, you know, for the next marathon

12:06

that I run because yes, I am thinking about

12:08

doing another one. Yeah. You know, I

12:10

will be able to change my mindset

12:13

in that last ten k's because that is when it starts

12:15

to get physically challenging. But,

12:17

you know, hopefully take away some of

12:19

that mental challenge by going, actually,

12:21

we have done this before. I have been

12:23

here, you know, we can

12:25

do this. And knowing a little bit more about

12:28

what it feels like, oh.

12:29

Is this going to ask on Knox Robinson,

12:31

the, the influence that he'd had

12:33

on you?

12:34

Yeah. So as I mentioned, I have this

12:36

really amazing treadmill that's got these amazing

12:39

trainers and knocks. Robinson

12:41

was the guy that actually did

12:43

the New York training, you know, the marathons

12:46

on the on the on the treadmill. And

12:48

I was meant to have another guide from Melbourne

12:50

come over to the States with me. But

12:53

unfortunately she had to pull out for some medical

12:55

reasons. So I just like

12:57

out of the blue contacted Knox and he

12:59

agreed to run the marathon with me. Just

13:02

having him there was just like amazing

13:04

because I'd literally

13:07

done the course with him on the

13:09

treadmill, but I hadn't completed it. And

13:11

so yeah, that last little section

13:13

was like quite amazing, actually, crossing

13:15

the finishing line with him. And yeah,

13:17

his his energy was just fantastic.

13:20

And just his confidence that like,

13:22

absolutely, he knew that I was going to just

13:24

complete it and do it really well. So

13:26

you know, it was and he'd never

13:28

met me, you know, like I was getting that from my

13:31

from my coach Karen, but

13:33

you know, like to have someone who'd never met

13:35

me and, you know, absolutely

13:38

following that up, backing that up in the

13:40

actual run was was incredible career.

13:42

As we wrap up a final message for people

13:45

who in the future would like to follow your

13:47

lead and run a marathon in particular,

13:49

something special similar to the New

13:51

York Marathon.

13:53

I think my message is

13:55

that running, you know, is

13:58

possible for everyone, but even

14:00

a lot of races, if you don't actually

14:02

run, you can walk. A lot of races like

14:04

the New York Marathon has really lenient

14:06

cutoff time. So there are people who walked

14:08

through the whole New York Marathon. So,

14:11

you know, the running community is just a

14:13

great community. There's

14:15

not a lot of judgment. We're there for each other,

14:18

to support each other, regardless

14:20

of how fast or slow we do things. You

14:22

know, we're doing better than the people who get

14:24

who don't get off the couch. So come

14:26

along, get involved. Come for a

14:28

walk. Come for a jog, come for a run.

14:31

You can go to Achilles australia.org

14:33

dot forward slash

14:35

Melbourne for further details. Cordia

14:37

Stevenson thanks for joining us on Vision

14:40

Australia Radio.

14:41

No problems at all. Thanks so much for your time, Matt.

14:50

I'm Sam Culley and you're listening to

14:52

Talking Vision on Vision Australia

14:55

Radio, associated stations

14:57

of FX and the Community

14:59

Radio Network. I hope

15:01

you enjoyed that interview with Matt

15:03

Lee and Claudia Stephenson there.

15:06

If you missed any part of that

15:08

conversation with Matt and Claudia,

15:10

or you'd love to have a listen again.

15:12

Talking vision is available

15:15

on the Vision Australia Radio

15:17

website at npr.org.

15:20

You can also find Talking Vision

15:22

through your favorite podcast platform

15:25

or through the Vision Australia library.

15:28

And now here's Conrad Brown

15:30

with Fiona Toohey from the

15:32

other film festival.

15:34

The other film festival and Arts

15:36

Access Victoria are presenting

15:38

resistance, an online

15:40

accessible film program available

15:42

for streaming on demand now

15:44

via Acm's Cinema three

15:47

website. Resistance is a program

15:49

of international and Australian films

15:51

screening until Thursday, December

15:54

7th. All of the resistance films

15:56

are made by deaf and disabled

15:58

people, either as key creators,

16:01

collaborators and or performers,

16:03

and also, very importantly, all of

16:05

the films are free to watch. Audio

16:07

described and captioned.

16:10

The other film festival is proudly disability

16:12

led, with a festival team including

16:15

artistic director Fiona Toomey,

16:17

who is joining us on the program today.

16:19

Fiona, wonderful to have you here.

16:21

Oh, thank you so much. You know, honored

16:23

to be here as well.

16:24

Fiona, we love featuring

16:27

a festival on Virgin Australia

16:29

Radio that ticks the boxes.

16:31

And I mean that in the most positive way.

16:33

So great to see that. It is

16:35

obviously disability focused

16:38

but also audio described

16:40

as well, which is something that's very important to

16:42

our community of interest and our listeners.

16:45

But before we go into the program

16:47

and looking at it kind of more in depth, tell

16:49

us a little bit about your role

16:52

in the festival and the festival itself.

16:54

Okay.

16:55

Well, next to you, the other film festival,

16:57

or as we call in its nickname

16:59

is TOF. Yes, it's its 20th

17:01

anniversary. I've been working on

17:03

it as artistic director for the last few

17:05

years, but I was, as I'm a

17:07

filmmaker as well. I was around a little bit when

17:09

it started in the early 2000. You

17:12

know, there was many reasons for it to stop. But one

17:14

of the big reasons at the time and,

17:16

you know, things have improved, but they've still got a long way

17:18

to go that access. So particularly

17:20

audio description captioning wasn't happening

17:23

at the kind of mainstream film

17:25

festivals. And even with cinema,

17:27

there was still that fight going on. So

17:30

in terms of access, that's something

17:33

that it isn't tokenistic. It's something

17:35

that we do a lot of advocacy on. But for

17:37

our offer, there's certain, you know,

17:39

minimum they're not even minimum. Like we

17:41

wouldn't do something if it wasn't

17:43

going to be audio described for example. So

17:46

sort of that's some of the history.

17:48

And what's quite exciting now.

17:50

And I like am

17:52

artistic director. You know, I do work part

17:54

time doing this work for the festival

17:57

at Arts Access Victoria. But I'm also

17:59

a filmmaker and identify with disability,

18:01

and I've also ended up being there's

18:03

a few of us, but doing a lot of advocacy

18:05

in that mainstream space. And, you know,

18:08

there's a lot of change coming and

18:10

a lot of disability is actually

18:12

finally, you know, a big part of

18:14

the diversity conversations that are happening

18:16

mainstream, but still a lot along a

18:18

long way to go and a lot to kind of for

18:20

the mainstream to catch up with. So

18:22

that's both in terms of access. And you

18:25

would know a lot more around how much

18:27

work screen work out there is

18:29

and is not audio described, but

18:31

also and what's really important

18:33

to us and how we ended up choosing the films too,

18:35

is that we are really interested in

18:38

who's authoring the film, who's actually making the

18:40

film. So in the screenings we talk about Above

18:42

the Line, so that's writers,

18:44

directors and producers, and

18:46

we really want that work to be made

18:48

in the language we use by deaf and disabled

18:51

people. You know, that there's authentic casting,

18:53

that there's, you know, social model

18:56

thinking. So it's really found this

18:58

exciting portrayal that channel

19:00

four has. And they actually use that term social

19:02

model thinking. But it's just really

19:04

trying to get away from all the stereotypes

19:07

we've all seen. We want also

19:09

opportunities for for actors and performers

19:12

and all creatives to actually be getting

19:14

roles in not only short films

19:16

but in mainstream as well. So we feel like,

19:19

you know, our film festival and it's so

19:21

great that it can be national. Yes,

19:23

streaming platform hopefully

19:26

is helping. That's part of our modus

19:28

operandi, which is big language. That's part of

19:30

what we're you know what I mean? We're not just

19:32

choosing these films out of nowhere. There's

19:34

there's sort of a framework

19:36

we're trying to or a very strong advocacy,

19:39

but also hopefully really entertaining

19:41

and insightful.

19:42

I think all film festivals, you know,

19:44

walk that fine line. But with Toff,

19:47

I think one of the. Things that came

19:49

out for me when I was looking at the program and reading

19:51

more about it was, there's always

19:54

a lot of talk about representation

19:56

and the importance of representation,

19:58

but for a lot of people that can just be

20:00

having someone in the cast who

20:02

has a disability or is othered

20:05

in some way, as you've highlighted,

20:07

the really important part here is that

20:09

representation is key on

20:11

screen and behind the scenes, and

20:13

in every single aspect of of

20:15

what is being presented, which is such

20:18

an important thing. And it seems

20:20

obvious, but I think, as you said, we've

20:22

come a long way, but we still have

20:24

a long way to come in terms of representation.

20:27

But when you're putting the program together,

20:29

you know it's featuring international

20:31

and Australian films. Is

20:34

there a lot of content out

20:36

there for you to choose from, or are you

20:38

really kind of getting in there and

20:40

hunting all of this, these great films

20:43

out?

20:43

We are definitely hunting things out. I mean,

20:45

think, look, it's not to say

20:48

it's certainly more work coming through, but because

20:50

our focus is really like, we want

20:52

to know who's making the work and

20:54

not trying to be like a censor, but we're really

20:56

making space for something that has been

20:59

unrepresented. And where us

21:01

as a disability community, have

21:03

not had the power and agency in that

21:05

storytelling. And so that's really

21:07

important to us. And I suppose that's also

21:09

not true. We've got a real curatorial

21:12

focus. And so this year we've got the theme of

21:14

resistance. Last year we had a theme of flaunt

21:16

is I suppose we're going for that less is more approach

21:18

as well, and we're wanting, but it is a

21:20

struggle to find. And that's

21:23

why I feel with the other

21:25

film festival, you know, we do get funding from Screen Australia,

21:27

but we have three streams. So the screening

21:29

industry and what I'm called community

21:31

is because for me and am, as I said,

21:34

a filmmaker, it's like I don't want to just be showing

21:36

work from overseas or I don't want to do

21:38

I want to be able to show we're based in Victoria, I

21:40

want to be able to show a Victorian work, I want to be able. And

21:43

in New South Wales they have this great program

21:45

called Screen Ability. So we do have two

21:48

screen ability short films and

21:50

that is a that's a programming fund

21:52

for people with disability to make

21:54

their own work. But that's not in every state.

21:57

So look there's

21:59

definitely more work coming. But and it is

22:01

challenging because ultimately

22:03

disabilities are fabric. It's

22:05

part of society. So ultimately

22:07

everyone should and we should have disabled

22:09

characters, I think, in all our mainstream

22:12

shows. And and it's not wanting to be

22:14

that kind of the advocacy police,

22:16

but at the moment we've just had it's been

22:18

going on for more than 100 years.

22:20

We're not many of us are actually being the ones

22:22

with our own agency in the storytelling.

22:24

So that's why we want to prioritize, you

22:27

know, as we say, kind of a cliche, but

22:29

in a way, we would love it in a future where

22:31

as a festival, we didn't need to exist

22:33

because, you know, particularly for your

22:35

audience, is that everything has got audio

22:38

description or it's meeting access.

22:40

But most importantly, deputies,

22:42

abled people can, if they want to have thriving

22:45

careers as screenwriters or

22:47

filmmakers or producers. One

22:50

of the.

22:50

Other things that I think is a really important

22:52

part to highlight about this

22:54

festival is that when we talk about access,

22:57

one of the other really unique things

22:59

of this festival is that

23:01

it is online and it is on

23:03

demand and it is free. Now,

23:05

we got used to in some

23:07

ways because of lockdowns and during Covid

23:09

times, being able to tap into

23:12

some film festivals through online

23:14

and on demand. And I think for a lot

23:16

of people, they may have seen it as a

23:18

convenient thing, but for others,

23:20

it actually offered true accessibility

23:23

to be able to enjoy and engage

23:25

with these film festivals and

23:27

really keen to find out from you, why

23:30

is it so important for you to have it

23:32

available in this platform

23:34

and also for free?

23:36

What's hybrid access? You can't, you

23:38

know, I know if some people like I've been

23:40

told we that for the deaf blind community, being

23:42

online for example, may not be the best

23:44

option. Sure. But you know, especially

23:47

like for example, I'm immunocompromised, so I'm

23:49

still being really careful how I go out in the world.

23:51

But we've always had, you know,

23:53

there's always a different range of access,

23:55

meaning, you know, within the disability

23:58

community, different times of day. So it's

24:00

different people. If you live regionally, you

24:02

can't, you know, different things about even travelling.

24:04

So think having it.

24:06

And we've extended this year for two weeks for an

24:08

over a two week period. It gives you the flexibility,

24:11

being on demand to watch it in your own time,

24:13

in your own space, when you want to.

24:16

And in terms of it being

24:18

free, that's also really important

24:20

because we don't want to prohibit particularly,

24:22

you know, for the disability community

24:25

there's always exceptions but not the wealthiest

24:27

communities. So it's like that can be a

24:29

barrier. We're just trying to remove as

24:31

many barriers as possible. So there's always

24:33

these arguments around oh but if you charge a nominal

24:35

amount then people might watch more. But we're

24:37

just trying to remove that. And we've got very

24:40

clear access guidelines

24:42

on the ACMi cinema three website. So

24:44

making it really clear how you have

24:46

to create an. Like

24:48

maybe she could count on the cinema three platform.

24:51

But then once you're in all

24:53

our offerings during the two weeks of the festival,

24:55

the work is free.

24:56

No, I think it's so important. I think it's something

24:59

that I don't think a lot of festivals

25:01

have taken into account, is what

25:03

accessibility actually can mean for

25:05

a lot of different people.

25:07

Yeah. And the audience numbers you can actually get.

25:09

And I know because we also

25:11

do, you know, partner with a

25:13

number of the other bigger film festivals. And

25:16

a couple of times we've done things. They've been shocked by

25:18

the audience numbers. They've got when something's been

25:20

online.

25:21

I'm so glad to hear that. It's such a great

25:23

lineup of a variety of films

25:25

that you've got there on offer. So as

25:27

we mentioned, Fiona, the festival

25:29

is on until Thursday, December

25:32

7th. There's a fantastic range of

25:34

films available on offer.

25:36

It's free, it's on demand, it's

25:38

online to have

25:40

a check out what's happening in the programme

25:43

and with the festival itself, head

25:45

to cinema three dot ACMi

25:48

dot net and

25:50

then look for the other film festival.

25:52

Really exciting that this festival

25:54

exists and it's out there for everyone

25:57

to enjoy. So Fiona, we

25:59

are really proud to support it here

26:01

on Virgin Australia Radio and wish

26:03

you and the team all the best for a great festival.

26:05

Thank you so much.

26:13

That was Conrad Brown with Fiona

26:16

Tully from the other film festival.

26:18

If you're listening to this on Wednesday

26:21

the 6th of December,

26:23

there are still a couple of days left

26:25

to watch the movies on offer

26:27

through the other film festival. However,

26:30

if you are listening past midnight

26:33

on the 7th of December,

26:35

worry not as in the meantime,

26:38

there are plenty of audio

26:40

described films, programs

26:42

and exhibits on display through

26:44

the Australian Centre for the Moving

26:46

Image, as well as Vision

26:48

Australia's catalogue of movies,

26:51

TV shows and theatre productions,

26:53

plus much more. To find

26:55

out more about audio description,

26:58

search for audio description

27:00

services on the Visual

27:02

Studio website. Vision australia.org

27:05

that's Vision Australia all

27:07

one word.org and

27:10

that's all we have time for today. You've

27:13

been listening to Talking Vision. Talking

27:16

vision is a production of Vision

27:18

Australia Radio. Thanks to

27:20

all involved with putting the show together

27:22

and remember we love your feedback

27:24

and comments. So please do get in touch

27:27

on Talking Vision at Vision

27:29

australia.org. That's

27:31

talking vision all. One word

27:33

at Vision australia.org.

27:35

But until next week it's Sam

27:38

Cully saying bye for now.

27:43

You can contact Vision Australia by

27:45

phoning us anytime during business

27:48

hours on one 308

27:50

4746.

27:52

That's one 308 4746

27:56

or by visiting Vision australia.org.

27:59

That's Vision australia.org.