AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me)
Fueled by societal change that is beginning to recognize everyone benefits when people with disabilities are seen as employable, valued members, filmmaker and director Joey Travolta is an unstoppable force.
The former special education teacher and brother of actor John Travolta founded LA-based Inclusion Films in 2007 to teach studio and filmmaking skills to people with developmental disabilities.
“I’m going to be doing this until the day I drop,” he promises.
His summer film camps held at three locations in the United States — including this year’s 10th annual Short Film Camp at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga — further fulfill his mission. Five year-round, vocational film workshops in California train adults with developmental disabilities for jobs in the film and media industry.
Inclusion Film’s employees include former camp and workshop graduates and clients like Ford Motor Company, NBA Cares and NBA basketball teams, Easter Seals and others.
Travolta says he is experiencing progressive change when he approaches potential clients or organizers at sites for future camps and workshops.
“Doors are opening,” says Travolta. “We’re getting production work and our folks are able to get professional experience. We did a first-time project at a school in Arkansas this year.”
Media director Hester Wagner agrees that operations at the Moraga camp are becoming easier. “After 10 years, all the logistics are smooth,” she says.
If there is an overwhelming factor that remains in 2017, it is the intense need for programs like the one run by Inclusion Films and hosted by Lafayette’s Futures Explored and SMC.
“It’s not typical. It goes beyond (vocational training for) mundane, remedial work because the interests and passions of people with disabilities goes beyond that,” says Wagner. “When people hear about it, the reaction is “Yes, let’s do this.” It has led to more communities wanting to have our programs.”
And those communities are like the one in Arkansas, where a school district superintendent learned about the program from a student who returned to her hometown after attending camp at SMC.
That connection led to Inclusion Films being hired to film actor Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival that supports women and diversity in entertainment media.
“Next year, we’ll have a block at the festival to screen films from this year’s summer camps,” says Travolta.
A March camp in Lodi led to this year’s theme: Acts of Kindness. For kids who’ve often been on the slim end of that equation, Travolta says buy-in was immediate. Wagner adds that campers are especially clued in this year.
“They’re engaged politically, socially,” she says. “They’re anxious, aware of how changes to health care directly effect the services. They’re not seeing kindness on a global scale. The films are specific — about trying to save the world from what’s going on.”
Devin Morrissey, 24, has attended the camp almost every year.
“Kindness is needed more than ever, especially in the autism community,” the Danville resident says. “There’s love and peace and tranquility inside our tough exteriors. Filmmaking brings it out: it gives us a chance to play a completely different character than what we’re used to.”
He says the camp gave him confidence to earn a bachelors degree in music from Whittier College in Los Angeles and find employment as a behavioral therapist working with children on the autism spectrum.
Rachel Kean, 21, of Lafayette, says her three years acting in films and writing at the camp have been joyful. Like Travolta, nothing was going to stop her from telling stories.
“If I didn’t come to this camp I still would have written my stories about family, the beach and Alabama where my sister lives. I tell kind stories, about being respectful, helping, people calling me “Rache,” which brings up joy, and not nicknames I don’t like.”
It’s a simple statement that captures the essence of Travolta’s inclusive mission.
Morrissey says it best. “I work on including everyone, helping campers to not be nervous. We need to know that inclusion is one of the most beautiful things we can give to anyone. It’s a genius idea: when you have kindness and pass it on, that says it all.”
Source: Inclusion Films: People with disabilities learn filmmaking skills at Saint Mary’s camp – East Bay Times
Fueled by societal change that is beginning to recognize everyone benefits when people with disabilities are seen as employable, valued members, filmmaker and director Joey Travolta is an unstoppable force.
The former special education teacher and brother of actor John Travolta founded LA-based Inclusion Films in 2007 to teach studio and filmmaking skills to people with developmental disabilities.
“I’m going to be doing this until the day I drop,” he promises.
His summer film camps held at three locations in the United States — including this year’s 10th annual Short Film Camp at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga — further fulfill his mission. Five year-round, vocational film workshops in California train adults with developmental disabilities for jobs in the film and media industry.
Inclusion Film’s employees include former camp and workshop graduates and clients like Ford Motor Company, NBA Cares and NBA basketball teams, Easter Seals and others.
Travolta says he is experiencing progressive change when he approaches potential clients or organizers at sites for future camps and workshops.
“Doors are opening,” says Travolta. “We’re getting production work and our folks are able to get professional experience. We did a first-time project at a school in Arkansas this year.”
Media director Hester Wagner agrees that operations at the Moraga camp are becoming easier. “After 10 years, all the logistics are smooth,” she says.
If there is an overwhelming factor that remains in 2017, it is the intense need for programs like the one run by Inclusion Films and hosted by Lafayette’s Futures Explored and SMC.
“It’s not typical. It goes beyond (vocational training for) mundane, remedial work because the interests and passions of people with disabilities goes beyond that,” says Wagner. “When people hear about it, the reaction is “Yes, let’s do this.” It has led to more communities wanting to have our programs.”
And those communities are like the one in Arkansas, where a school district superintendent learned about the program from a student who returned to her hometown after attending camp at SMC.
That connection led to Inclusion Films being hired to film actor Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival that supports women and diversity in entertainment media.
“Next year, we’ll have a block at the festival to screen films from this year’s summer camps,” says Travolta.
A March camp in Lodi led to this year’s theme: Acts of Kindness. For kids who’ve often been on the slim end of that equation, Travolta says buy-in was immediate. Wagner adds that campers are especially clued in this year.
“They’re engaged politically, socially,” she says. “They’re anxious, aware of how changes to health care directly effect the services. They’re not seeing kindness on a global scale. The films are specific — about trying to save the world from what’s going on.”
Devin Morrissey, 24, has attended the camp almost every year.
“Kindness is needed more than ever, especially in the autism community,” the Danville resident says. “There’s love and peace and tranquility inside our tough exteriors. Filmmaking brings it out: it gives us a chance to play a completely different character than what we’re used to.”
He says the camp gave him confidence to earn a bachelors degree in music from Whittier College in Los Angeles and find employment as a behavioral therapist working with children on the autism spectrum.
Rachel Kean, 21, of Lafayette, says her three years acting in films and writing at the camp have been joyful. Like Travolta, nothing was going to stop her from telling stories.
“If I didn’t come to this camp I still would have written my stories about family, the beach and Alabama where my sister lives. I tell kind stories, about being respectful, helping, people calling me “Rache,” which brings up joy, and not nicknames I don’t like.”
It’s a simple statement that captures the essence of Travolta’s inclusive mission.
Morrissey says it best. “I work on including everyone, helping campers to not be nervous. We need to know that inclusion is one of the most beautiful things we can give to anyone. It’s a genius idea: when you have kindness and pass it on, that says it all.”
Source: Inclusion Films: People with disabilities learn filmmaking skills at Saint Mary’s camp – East Bay Times
