Unity Film Festival 2024

Unity Film Festival presents an exciting, diverse selection of inclusive features and shorts created by and with learning disabled and autistic creatives and actors, alongside Q&As and panel discussions.

View Saturday’s programme below. You can book tickets to individual screenings for £8 / £5.

Or by a day-pass for £25 / £17.50. Buying a day pass allows you entry to all screenings on your chosen day for a hugely discounted price.

11.30am – 12.30pm

Our first screening to feature specifically family and young-person-friendly films, with animation, music, documentary and drama from Wales, France, Australia and the UK.

On Happiness
Wales / 2023 / adv U / 3 mins / Bethany Freeman

Actor and dancer Bethany Freeman explores the things that bring her joy in life, and how she finds her happiness.

Le Petit Casserole d’Anatole (Anatole’s Little Saucepan)
France / 2014 / adv U / 5 mins / Eric Montchaud

Anatole has to drag his little saucepan behind him wherever he goes. Sometimes it really gets in the way, but then he tries to hide it…

Look the Part
Australia / 2021 / adv U / 7 minutes / Claire Fletcher

Sam is a theatre janitor who aspires to become a dancer. One night, her passion is awakened by her imaginary inner diva, Peaches. Why not dance along with them?

A Tale of Swords and Smoke
UK / 2024 / adv U / 7 minutes / Michael Strachan Brown

Two young adventurers journeying across a faraway land, where they must find true courage in the pursuit of adventure, discovery and the foiling of a terrible fire-breathing menace…

Things that Go Unnoticed
Wales / 2023 / adv U / 7 minutes / multiple directors

Music Theatre Wales’s first Digital Opera! A story about the importance of being aware of the world around us – to create kindness and fairness.

Olan, Earthbound
Australia / 2023 / adv U / 11 minutes / Tim Grubisic

Olan the alien has always dreamed of moving to Earth, but to do so he must be voted in by the audience of the planet’s biggest talk show: The Gravy Train.

Four Solos in the Wild (part 1) – Wait For Me and The Composer
UK / 2023 / adv U / 10 minutes / Erika Juniper, Mervyn Bradley, Ray Jacobs

Two solo dancers reveal their relationship with the wild in dances created and filmed in the wild woods of Ty Canol, Pembrokeshire. This is your invitation to dance, too!

1.30pm – 3pm

Animation, drama, black comedy, animated documentary and dance cover themes of sexuality, nature, family, despair and personal ambition in this selection of films from around Wales and the UK. Content warning: explicit content. There will be a short Q&A after the films.

Dead Cat Film
UK / 2023 / adv 12A / 5 mins / Josie Charles and Nathan Miller

A short dark absurd comedy starring Will Gao (Heartstopper) and featuring the voice of Hugh Bonneville. Produced by BAFTA-nominated Rasp Films.

A Kooky Witchy Girl
Wales / 2023 / adv U / 3 mins / Lindsay Spellman

Actor and artist Lindsay explores themes of happiness – what it means and how it manifests itself – in this personal documentary. Commissioned by Public Health Wales for their Hapus programme.

Stones and Dust
Wales / 2022 / adv 12A / 23 mins / Daniel McGowan

Content warning: mild drug use. Carys responds to her dying father’s request to visit him and her younger brother in deepest Wales, as he tries to make amends for years of neglect.

Coming Out Autistic
UK / 2022 / adv 18 / 4 mins / Steven Fraser

Content warning – explicit imagery and some strong language. A short animated documentary that explores the experience of telling the world that you are autistic when you also identify as LGBTQ+

Four Solos in the Wild (part 2) – Let Go and A Safe Place to Rest
UK / 2023 / adv U / 10 minutes / Andrew Kelly, Graham Busby, Ray Jacobs

Two solo dancers reveal their relationship with the wild in dances created and filmed in the ancient woods of Ty Canol, Pembrokeshire

Oasis
Canada / 2022 / adv U / 15 minutes / Justine Martin

Documentary about twins Raphaël and Rémi, one of whom is autistic, as they reach the dawn of their teenage years and contemplate how their relationship might already be changing.

3.30pm – 5.20pm

Inside My Heart

An ode to the liberating power of unlimited imagination, the actors from Theatr Kamak reflect on their own lives, dreams and limitations as they create a performance of Furia. a fairy tale about betrayal, manslaughter and eroticism. A beautiful, stylishly filmed feature mixing documentary, fiction and behind-the-scenes footage as Kamak embark on bringing the classic story to life, Inside My Heart is a unique film not to be missed.

There will be a short Q&A after the film.

Netherlands / 2022 / adv 12A / 85 mins / Saskia Boddeke

6.15pm – 8pm

Scabrous satire in Bristol, touching family comedy drama in Canada, witchcraft in 1600s England, dystopia in near future London and adoption in late 20th Century Carmarthen all feature in our final collection of shorts, a mix of festival favourites and a world premiere (Lost & Found). Content warning: some derogatory language. There will be a short Q&A after the films.

The Cunning
UK / 2022 / adv 12A / 13 mins / Alexandra Maher

Content warning: brief bloody violence towards an animal. A mother and daughter are accused of witchcraft. Together, they hatch an ambitious plan for escape. Stars Gemma Arterton.

Chicken
Canada / 2023 / adv PG / 14 mins / Lucy McNulty & Emma Pollard

A down-on-her-luck, recently single 30-something is forced to move back into her childhood home. As she reconnects with her brother who has Down syndrome, will their differences drive them apart? Award-winning short from Vancouver.

Steve Parker
UK / 2024 / adv 15 / 10 mins / Benedict Robinson

Content warning: some strong and discriminatory language. A scabrously funny morality tale, centred on the grotesque figure of Steve Parker, a welfare assessor, as he fulfils his dream to rid the world of all Disabled people, but karma has other ideas…

Bebe AI
UK / 2021 / adv15 / 13 mins / Rebekah Fortune

Set in a familiar near-future, a young couple with Down’s syndrome must overcome prejudice and danger, in order to try and save the AI baby they want to adopt.

Lost and Found
Wales / 2024 / adv 12A / 15 mins / Daniel McGowan

Content warning: one use of discriminatory language, themes of adoption and rejection. Documentary. A man with Down’s Syndrome recreates the journey his adoptive mother took to find him, reflecting on his life and the painful reasons he was given up for adoption in the first place.

8.15pm – 9.45pm

Shadow

We close our festival with the Welsh premiere of this SXSW award-winning hit. Shadow follows a trio of activists with learning disabilities as they hold a town hall meeting about the future impacts of artificial intelligence. Adapted from Back to Back Theatre’s international stage sensation The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes, Shadow is followed by a Q&A with director Bruce Gladwin.

There will be a short Q&A after the film.

Australia / 2022 / 15 / 58 mins / Bruce Gladwin