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Do you remember Lachi? The returning readers sure do, for those who are new here, Lachi is a NYC award nominated singer and diversity and disability issues advocate. Well, she is a hurricane of initiatives and, like us, she made actions towards a more diversity and disability friendly culture, a priority (always in a glamorous way of course, and this is why we love her and her music so so so much).
A bit more than a month ago, she shared the Easterseals Disability Film Challange with Angela Bianchi and proposed to participate.
Angela shared it with us and… ❤
So why is this challenge special?!? Well…
The Easterseals Disability Film Challenge is a weekend-long film competition launched in 2014 by actor and ESSC board member Nic Novicki. The challenge was originally created with the aim of helping change the way we see disability.
Looks cool, doesn’t it?!
But here’s the deal: we would have had only five days for casting, shooting, editing, producing… as we would have known the theme only on the first day of the challenge: 16th March 2021!!!!
Yes, suicide… We knew it but… whatever, we thought, LET’S DO IT!!!
So here is what we needed for our film to be a great one in only 5 days:
1. The concept!
Obviously that was clear from the beginning.
It didn’t matter which theme would come out, we knew that the message we wanted to convey was the need for the fashion industry to be more accessible, inclusive and representative.
2. The writer!
Lachi and us wanted something that was ironic and fun, so when Lachi introduced amazing Liz Galalis to us we felt blessed!
She is an LA based comedy writer and actress ( The Joel McHale Show, Netflix and TXT Stories, Facebook Watch) and thanks to her precious help we got the result we were hoping for, a sort of diverse ‘ The Devil Wears Prada’ thing!
We wanted people to have fun, but we also wanted them to think and eventually realize, that in fact, all glamorous clothing items are designed for standard able-bodied individuals.
3. The cast!
We have put together a group of fabulous women from 3 different continents representing different ethnicities, backgrounds, ages and of course abilities. The cast was finally composed by Zazel Chavah O’Garra, Elisa Vavassori, Kellina Powell, Elena Travaini, Heloisa Rocha, Giulia Ghiretti, Marina La Loggia and Alicia Searcy; they all participated by playing a character or doing a catwalk, to show that fashion is (and must be) for every body.
There is so much more about these women but don’t worry, they’ll be starring our next posts!
[Oh yes… I am in the cast as well!!!]
4. The Shooting and the location
I’ll be honest with you guys, it was not easy to find all the stars we wanted for the film and fit in, everyone’s schedule: because of the pandemic, one of the rules was that everyone should record themselves from home. We missed not being in the same room and not being able to see each other in person but luckily we had… Zoom, right?! After all, who knows where you are based, now while reading this post!
So yes… we made it, before the 21st March of course and… that’s all I’m going to say!
The rest is here at this link for you to watch: so hurry up and check out Youtube, Instagram and Facebook Easterseals Disability Film Challenge’s official channel to watch and vote for THE FOCUS GROUP!
Remember to like, comment, share and let us know what you think!