The Crip Ciné series sets rigid perceptions of disability in motion. The feature film of Crip Ciné 2024 is the documentary The Ride Ahead, which depicts a young man’s journey towards living a life on his own terms.
Crip Ciné, which was honoured in 2023 with the Kunnia-Vimma honorary mention by the disability rights organisation The Treshold Association (Kynnys ry), returns this year. The feature film of the theme is The Ride Ahead, directed by father-son duo Samuel and Dan Habib.
The documentary The Ride Ahead is a festival hit, chronicling a young man’s journey towards adulthood and a self-determined life. In the film, Samuel, who uses an electric wheelchair and lives with a rare GNAO1 gene mutation, embarks on a journey across the United States to interview people with various disabilities. The conversations that Samuel has during his journey, about sexuality, identity, ableism, and starting a family, profoundly impact the young man’s life – and probably viewers’ too.
In addition to the feature film, Crip Ciné 2024 will screen nine other films, whose stories encourage new ways of thinking about disability. The series includes films that, for example, set rigid perceptions of disability in motion (as in the Crip Ciné in Motion short film screening), explore the grey areas of definitions (as in the film Simon of the Mountain, which won the Critics' Week Grand Prize at Cannes), and heat things up (as in the film Acsexybility). The selection of Crip Ciné films has been aided by a directing team consisting of Sanni Myllyaho, Sanni Purhonen, Pinja Eskola, and Peppi Santaniemi.
In addition to the films, disability will also be a topic of discussion at the festival. On Monday, 26 August, after the Crip Ciné in Motion screening, there will be a discussion with the filmmakers at Kino Regina. And, on Wednesday, 28 August, Daniel Conçalves's film Acsexybility will serve as a catalyst for a broader discussion around sexuality and people with disabilities.
The entire Crip Ciné programme and detailed schedules can be viewed here.
