Sheridan O’Donnell on Navigating the Film Festival Circuit With Disabilities
The 2023 Accelerate Fellow on what accessibility can look like from your screening to your post-panel discussions.
By Abbey White
Sheridan O’Donnell has screened a couple of films on the film festival circuit, including his debut feature Little Brother, and his latest, sports doc Rising Phoenix: A New Revolution. But the Elevate Collective member and Accelerate Fellow has already established a tenor for navigating what can be a career-defining environment for filmmakers looking to reach audiences and distributors.
The process, which includes submitting your work, preparing your film to screen, speaking to the press, filling theaters, and winning over the audience and jury — all before delivering a high-energy after-party — can be overwhelming. Which is why, amid the exhausting and exciting demands of the festival circuit, ensuring you have access at every point is pivotal to delivering the best possible outcome for your project.
But accessibility and festivals have, historically, not gone hand in hand. The result is that disabled creatives frequently have to navigate additional hurdles — and serve as their own advocates — during high-pressure, chaotic moments.
Below, O’Donnell opens up about his experiences screening his work on the festival circuit, what filmmaker support and accessibility have looked like at a disability-forward festival and beyond, and how he curates an environment for his projects that supports a successful festival experience irrespective of access.
How did you think about where you wanted Rising Phoenix: A New Revolution to debut, and why did the Reelabilities Film Festival feel like the right place to do it?
What ultimately led to our decision was the idea of starting with the disability community. The film's really geared towards nondisabled people, and every decision in the making of it was geared towards how do we make this accessible and persuasive to nondisabled people. So it was nice to have a place like ReelAbilities, where we had this big community of disabled people coming together to champion the film and celebrate the film, and feel encouraged, motivated, and inspired by the film. Especially in light of what's going on politically. I didn't anticipate that at all. I started this film three years ago, so I had no idea that the climate was going to be what it is today. Also, just the fact that the festival is really the most accessible film festival in the world, and that's a lot of what the film is about. So it seemed right that we would screen in a place where it'd be totally accessible for people of all abilities.
ReelAbilities is known for being one of the festival circuit’s most accessible events. Based on your experience there, and then other film festivals or premieres you've screened at, what do you think is important for disabled creatives to be aware of going in?
It's tricky to play at a festival and have to advocate for accessibility. There was the Marlee Matlin and Sundance issue that happened, where she didn't have access to judge, and I think that's rippled through festivals, which are now more conscious of needing things to be accessible. With Little Brother, we made an audio-described version, and we made a version with subtitles and closed captions. I don't know if every festival really had the ability to screen it accessibly, so I think it was a bit of a mixed bag on that front. I'd encourage filmmakers to advocate to festivals that that's important, and they should make efforts to [screen and host panels] more accessibly.
How do you talk to festival organizers about your own needs? And are you open about your disability with other filmmakers and festivalgoers?
I'm always very open with them. I can't drive due to my disability, and there are certain other things that I can't do. So I often ask for transportation to and from venues, and in large part, they're accommodating. I also just go out and jump in. I bring my cane and interact. I'm not sure if there have ever been instances where, at least so far, my disability has directly impacted my ability to enjoy a festival. But there are not a lot of disabled filmmakers, so I think it can be an isolating experience. I don't necessarily feel a ton of community when I go to festivals, but — and this is a general rule I have — I don't like to discuss my disability too much either because I get concerned that it's going to overshadow what the movie I made is about.
On a scale of one to 10, how important do you feel it is to speak up about those needs, especially when it comes to being able to screen your film successfully?
I feel like it's variable because I'm legally blind, but I have some usable vision. I imagine if I were more blind, the point system would be higher and the number would be higher. Right now, it's probably a five out of 10. But for me, anytime I bring up my disability, there's power in it. Anytime I tell the coordinators who are helping me, or the artistic director, then it's out there. They know, and then I usually can get accommodations. They're willing to help me because they understand. And really, most of the accommodations I've gotten have had nothing to do with being disabled, in the sense of, I'm a guest, and I'm showing up and premiering my film and giving it to their festival. So they should be rolling out the red carpet for me. That's generally what happens. I feel like festivals need to be doing that more because it's a big deal to give your premieres away to certain festivals, and they should respect that. And maybe they can't do everything, but they should be doing some of those things. But yes, I like to get it out there because then when I walk into the room and I have to take my cane out, they know already. There's no element of surprise.
What is your preferred audience for festival screenings?
Like anybody, I want a full house and, oftentimes, I want people who are just moviegoers. I don't want it to be too industry-heavy because I feel like they could be watching the movie with an overly critical eye. You'll get a more vocal audience when it's just real people. They feel a little bit more liberated in responding out loud. Little Brother's a drama-comedy, and so it's really important to have enough people in the room and to have the right energy to get the humor to play. The movie struggled in a lot of ways because a lot of the distributors saw it via screeners, and I don't think that that was the right avenue for them to see it. And I always love an after-party. I always do an intro and a Q&A because I really enjoy talking about the movie and setting the table and controlling the narrative in terms of how people feel about it, getting them excited about it.
Q&As can be an important tool for promoting your film. You can use them for social promotion and community engagement, which can translate into word-of-mouth support. You can also invite press to cover the conversation. How do you think about this kind of opportunity and structuring it?
I tend to like the ones that are not overstuffed. It's nice to have a producer represented, or in my case, two really strong lead producers, because producers answer questions. But outside of that, it should be just me and the primary cast. For moderating, you want someone who knows the movie really well, and is insightful about the actual movie, can talk about specificity, and then can also just let it veer away from the questions and become something else when it wants to go here. We did an after-party for Little Brother in Atlanta. We found a venue, bought food and drink, and we had an executive producer who was based in Atlanta, so they really took charge of that. That was very helpful. I feel this to be very true as well, that I'm not very good at social media marketing and all that — how you create buzz. I wish I knew more about that. But what was very successful at the festivals I've done is you just have to get out there and pound the pavement.
Can you talk about your experience promoting your film at festivals? What have you done to support it and get people into the theaters to see it?
I imagine, even if you're at Sundance, it's a competition of attention to get people to see your movie. [For Little Brother], we got out to Atlanta early, and then we just went to every party — everything. We had little postcards, and just did it the old school way. We put J.K. Simmons on the thumbnail [of a postcard], and said there was a live Q&A with the cast. Anything you can do to push your cast to be there, if you have named cast. We didn't have J.K. in Atlanta, but we had the two brothers, and that was invaluable in terms of building relationships, and then those relationships paid off in terms of winning the audience award. We had a loyal fan base at that point. People were really friends with us, and knew the movie really well. I gave time to speak to every single person who came. And even though we weren't playing in one of the top five festivals, my DP was like, this is the best premiere I've ever been to.
