Superfest International Disability Film Festival
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| Location | Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Contemporary Jewish Museum |
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| Founded | 1970 |
| Produced by | Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability, LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired |
| Hosted by | Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Contemporary Jewish Museum |
| Language | Primarily English |
| Website | superfestfilm |
Superfest International Disability Film Festival is a juried film festival held in the San Francisco Bay Area. Superfest is the longest-running disability film festival in the world. In addition to featuring films developed by and starring people with disabilities, Superfest aims to be inclusive. The directors also coach the film makers about accessibility of films to people with disabilities. During the film festival, the organizers provide sign language interpreters and film narrators to allow for the attendees with various disabilities to appreciate the films. All of the judges for Superfest are people with disabilities from various community roles, including disability community organizers, disability studies scholars, and film aficionados. Superfest closely follows the disability rights slogan: Nothing About Us Without Us.
Stereotypes of disabilities are perpetuated through mainstream media and popular culture. The aim of Superfest is to showcase films created by people with disabilities, illustrating real life experiences of disability and how universal the topic of disability can be. Some film submissions are what the disability community refers to as inspiration porn. These stories are generally regarding people with disabilities completing a great feat, in spite of their disabilities, and never approach the topic of discrimination of people with disabilities or the social standards to which people with disabilities are held. Attendees express they can be authentic at Superfest and speak openly about their experiences.
Superfest is held over a weekend and is considered more of a cultural event than a film festival.
The Superfest International Disability Film Festival began in Los Angeles in 1970 as a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting films representing the diverse disability community. At that time, Superfest was a small film showcase and not yet considered a film festival. In 1982, Culture! Disability! Talent! (CDT) took over operations of Superfest. In 1995, CDT decided to move Superfest from Los Angeles to Berkeley. Berkeley is significant to the disability rights movement and independent living.
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