Hello world! Welcome back to another blog. In this blog I’ll be talking about the screening of my short film Unmasked. As I’m writing this it’ll be 2 months since we premiered it and I can’t believe how quick it’s gone!
Intros:
To start the evening we each gave our own introductions. I’ve been as brief as I can, as I knew that the last time I introduced myself it went into proper motormouth. But this time I felt like I got all of my points across and it seemed to have gone well with the audience as I got a lovely applause at the end (as I think that’s when you know it’s good). The cast and crew then introduced themselves one by one. I won’t go through all of them as we’ll be here forever, but one person who is a real inspiration is a young man called Freddie Vokes. After his mum told him about going through many challenges as well as being autistic, he was someone who pushed boundaries and proved everyone wrong.
The Film:
The film itself went well with the crowd. We did show a mini teaser of the trailer to send to film festivals, where we basically gathered a few people who think that an autistic cast and crew can’t produce their own film when in fact that’s completely false. And despite a small technical issue at the beginning we got the main act rolling. Although I wish I mentioned that the film contained abit of mild language as there was a tiny bit of swearing in it. But other then that whilst I went outside to avoid sensory overload I did hear a clap amongst the audience. So my guess is they enjoyed it!
Break:
After the film there was a mini interval. And it was a good job because it was starting to get abit stuffy in the room, and also those that needed a cigarette, the toilet (which was one where you'd see at a festival but at least there was somewhere to go to lol!) or needed to regulate had that chance. And also because my branch manager had to go as his eldest was getting overwhelmed. And as much as I did want them to stay for the Q&A I also understood why they had to leave as I don’t want them to feel pressured to stay. But being there for the film was enough for me.
Q&A:
After the break we had abit of a Q&A. I won’t say all of the questions as we’ll be here forever! But some of them included do I prefer acting or directing (thanks dad), what made me add the video clips in, what’s next for me writing wise and is the project to help raise awareness or boost my acting career (which I answered was abit of both). But the one question that stood out to me was “is there a community out there that needs to be heard or are you trying to create it yourself?” That one gave me some real food for thought and here’s why. Lately more and mor people in their late life are getting diagnosed. And I boil it down to a few reasons:
Reason 1: Years ago it would’ve been seen as an abnormal thing. Therefore you would be brushed out of society, and it’s only now with society becoming more accepting that it’s time to reveal who you really are
Reason 2: Even now there’s a lack of understanding. And after influences like Christine McGuinness getting her diagnosis after learning about it through her children, it’s encouraged other people to get tested if they know they are as well!
Reason 3: People may brand it as a bad thing therefore people are not as open. But I hope this film will prove them wrong and will do the to raise awareness until the end of time.
To finish the event I said a few thank you's, which included a video message to those who couldn’t make it for various reasons. But it was a good way to end the night and not only did we raise the money for the venue but enough to start taking it to festivals. And what a good way to end it! Here is the message below!
And that was the lowdown on the screening of my first short film. Please see the link to my film and my go fund me page below (where this version has subtitles for those who are hard of hearing) to share and donate so I can take this project to many festivals to not only open more doors in my acting career, but to also show others that Autism is not a disability, but a different ability.
GoFundMe Page: https://gofund.me/01bf691e
See you soon for another blog. Until next time…
This is The Autistic Actress signing off :)
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