This special one-day event - a mini-film festival within a film festival - was the first ever film festival in the world run by, and for, people with learning disabilities. The festival, Us, You and Them showcased shorts made by learning disabled filmmakers, alongside some well-known but controversial feature films. Lars Von Trier's 1998 film The Idiots explores the impact of 'pretending' to be learning disabled while Werner Herzog's The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is based on a true story about a young man who suddenly appeared in 19th century Nuremberg, barely able to talk or walk. Our reviewers were learning disabled actors from Mind the Gap and the film most of our reviewers wanted to talk about was Afterlife - it's about a journalist chasing a big story who is called home to look after his sister who has Down's syndrome. Award-winning learning disabled actor Paula Sage gives a memorable performance as the sister, so much so she is said to have reduced Sir Sean Connery to tears. | "All the films were interesting and it's hard to pick one - there were that many to choose from!" | | Edmund |
Reviewer Kerri Large agrees: 'Well, what I feel about it is that the young girl is very good." Kerri says the film left her feeling sad but she could certainly identify with parts of it: "Sometimes when I am on my own I tend to run off and sometimes people do wander on the streets and in town." Also, "'I'm starving, I'm starving' is a bit like me. I love my food." Kerri enjoyed the film but there were some aspects of it that she had her doubts about: "I don't mind sometimes people swearing, we all swear but it reminds me of my brother..." Chris Steel had much the same thoughts about Afterlife: "It was OK, the movie about the disabled girl who has the problems with her mum. I didn't agree with the swearing. I thought it was a bit awful." For Chris, though, the Festival as a whole was a big hit: "I really enjoyed watching all the movies. I liked those like the Doctor Who one where the actors fight the Daleks and the evil Doctor steals the ray gun and that's one of my favourite things. I liked the bit where that little robot walked backwards with his face showing and I think it was so funny." Chris says he also particularly enjoyed hearing from some of the filmmakers. Edmund Davies also enjoyed the event as a whole: "Where to begin? It was a very enjoyable event with lots of different films for different people. Some films were made by using ordinary things like staples and what have you. The one I like was the one about the alien disco creature from Mars which was quite amusing. There was a sort of Doctor Who meets Star Trek thing with a very, very, very large K9 ( which looked as though it had been made by Mister Blobby. All the films were interesting and it's hard to pick one - there were that many to choose from and it's hard to remember them all!" Kerri, Chris and Edmund went along to Us, You and Them: Exploring Learning Disabled People and Film at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television on March 5th, 2006. Us, You and Them was part of the 2006 Bradford Film Festival. | 
