In this blog, Florence Grieve reflects on the joy of attending SQIFF (Scottish Queer International Film Festival), a festival taking a holistic approach to access provisions. Florence’s needs as a deaf audience member were acknowledged and met by the festival, giving her an engaging, rewarding experience and showing what is possible when exhibitors incorporate inclusivity in every element of their practice.
Festivals, a place where filmmakers, critics and the general public gather, united by one thing: a love of film. Everyone is vying to see the latest releases, film festivals are where award season buzz is generated and new talent debuts on the silver screen. In this day and age, going to a film festival couldn’t be easier, with a plethora of festivals across the UK and beyond, announcements are made on social media and tickets available online. All you have to do is book, turn up and enjoy, it’s that simple.
But what if you don’t fit into that mould, or rather, the festival mould doesn’t fit you? I’m talking about access. I advocate for greater accessibility in film exhibition, and in many ways, I have been training for this role since I was in primary school. I am deaf and rely on descriptive subtitles to access films. Descriptive subtitles transcribe the dialogue and relevant and important elements of the film’s soundtrack, such as music and sound effects. However, despite there being a straightforward way for me to have equitable access to film, it has never been that easy.
I was served disappointment, rather than entertainment, many times as a kid when, popcorn at the ready, the descriptive subtitles didn’t appear on screen. I missed friends’ birthday parties at the cinema. And when my local cinema programmed accessible screenings of kid’s films in the middle of the school day, we’d drive an hour away to a different cinema. In some ways things have moved forward, for example it is no longer a regular occurrence that I go to a film screening which is advertised with descriptive subtitles, but they don’t appear onscreen.
However, this issue hasn’t gone away – just last year, this happened during a screening of ‘Magazine Dreams’ at Sundance. Equally, the number of accessible screenings and when they are shown remain as barriers. For example, on National Cinema Day 2023, out of more than 20,000 screenings across the whole of the UK, only 22 English language screenings were subtitled. The day-to-day experiences of disabled film lovers like me show that we’ve not moved forward enough because we continue to feel let down and left behind.
But is there another way?
After those experiences, imagine my joy on discovering the existence of a film festival where I could attend everything in the programme without having to request, or campaign, for access. Trailblazing festivals like the Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF) are redefining the expectations of accessibility for disabled audiences. I used the term ‘fully accessible’ in the title of this article to reflect how the festival was fully accessible to me because it met all of my access needs. However, it is important to note that what is ‘fully accessible’ will look different to different people. SQIFF informs audiences of the access provisions available throughout the festival, which allows each person to decide whether or not it is accessible to them.
I am not the first to recognise SQIFF’s accessibility; it has been well documented and celebrated since the festival was founded in 2014, including by Eye For Film, Limping Chicken, The Skinny, The List, and many others. SQIFF’s Access Coordinator, Kiana Kalantar-Hormozi, tells me, ‘At SQIFF, access is so much more than being able to enter the front door. It’s about being included and welcomed without the usual barriers in place.’
It’s clear that access is taken seriously at SQIFF, but I wanted to experience it for myself. So after my first experience of a fully accessible (for me) festival, what are my key takeaways?
Freedom of choice is just so, well, freeing!
When the SQIFF programme was released, I went through it and decided what I wanted to see. Usually, I decide based on accessibility, which filters my list down to a handful of screenings, and so it was joyful to choose what caught my interest instead.
I was encouraged to try things I usually shy away from, which saw me laughing out loud and loving the shorts programme, Animation Now. I have dismissed animation in the past, on the grounds that ‘it’s just not my thing’, but because this screening had descriptive subtitles, I decided to give it a go. Whilst waiting for it to start, I reflected on how I’d come to hold this narrow-minded view. I traced it back to watching animations on VHS without descriptive subtitles, not having a clue what was going on. I couldn’t even glean clues by lipreading, like I would if watching live-action, as animated characters’ lip patterns are very far from the real thing. SQIFF allowed me to enjoy animation, there was a BSL interpreter and live subtitles for the introduction and post-film workshop, and descriptive subtitles on all the shorts.
Access isn’t one size fits all and it is clear from the range of access provisions available that this is central to SQIFF’s philosophy.
Creating change and feeling hopeful
As well as descriptive subtitles, my visit was made accessible by the live subtitles (real-time, verbatim descriptions of the dialogue) and BSL interpretation available, such as for introductions or panel discussions. It is not often that an event will have both live subtitles and BSL interpretation, even though they cater to different needs. And for me, I find both useful, I will either switch between them or focus on one, depending on a range of factors.
Sometimes, I get frustrated at how my access needs aren’t black and white, but I didn’t feel this at SQIFF because of their freedom-of-choice approach to access. I emailed ahead of time to request seats with a good view and received a friendly and helpful response, which made me feel confident beforehand. When I arrived at the venue on day one of the festival, there was an access table with SQIFF staff, volunteers and BSL interpreters on hand to help and show me to my reserved seat.
“We look at access measures from an intersectional, 360-degree perspective – financial access is just as important as physical access to the venue, for example,” Kiana tells me. And this holistic approach is evident in the myriad of access provisions I’ve not yet mentioned – an Audience Travel and Access Fund, a pay-what-you-can sliding scale for tickets, access notes and content notes before every film (text onscreen and voiced), audio descriptions and more!
‘Access makes sense’, the tagline of Sense & Accessibility (which I founded to further the conversation around accessible film exhibition), was well and truly confirmed at SQIFF. In their panel discussion, ‘Crafting Accessible Films with We Crip Film’, Clare Baines, Charlie Little and Tara Brown discussed why it makes sense for cinemas and festivals to improve their accessibility. The reasons discussed ranged from widening the definition of a successful event (i.e. not only bums on seats), to the purple pound (the spending power of disabled people when our access needs are met), to the can-do attitude of smaller festivals, where small teams of passionate programmers make access happen. And it’s clear to me that the team of people who make this festival happen have access at heart and passion in the bucketloads.
I left SQIFF on a high, my cup full with good film, friends and conversation. My final takeaway? Access is important and serious but it is also joyful and fun – and it can be both, everytime, and all at once.
Florence Grieve is an accessibility advocate, film programmer and writer.
IG: florence_grieve
Header image credit: Tiu Makkonen