Page 31 - Lauren Lolo Spencer Issue

opportunities, at least I’m hoping so.”
Stephanie Noguer and Lolo Spencer give the Best Actor Award to Layne Apffel for “Rain in My Head”
Sweeping three major cate- gories, “Rain in my Head” took home Best Director for Chrissy Marshall, Best Actor for Layne Appfel and Best Film.
“This is my second year
doing Easterseals Disability
Film Challenge.” said Mar-
shall. “I always loved com-
ing here and meeting all the
other disabled creatives. I
was really fortunate to meet
a woman named Marie
[Alyse Rodriguez], and she
has her own film production
company. And she intro-
duced me to the lovely faces
of [cinematographer Camilo
Godoy and assistant director
Sebastian Gonzalez] here,
who helped me bring the
whole project together. And
then I’ve worked with [actor] Sophia Morales before, so I already knew that she’s an amazing talent that I want- ed in all my films, honestly. And same goes for Layne. They’re both so incredibly talented, and I’ve seen them work in a bunch of different mediums, and they nail it every time.
really was born because my sisters and my best friend and I are all obsessed with reality dating shows, and we’re all really frustrated at the lack of representation there. And so, we decided what would a reality dating show look like with disabled people. But if the produc- ers were just maybe well-intentioned but definitely not well educated. And so that’s how the satire scene was born.”
The main point of our film is deafness is not a monolith. And people who grow up with different experiences and different accessibility needs have different access to sign language and language in general. And also as a queer woman myself, I really wanted to dip my toes into getting some queer representation as well.”
The film challenge not only showcases talent, winners walk away with some amazing prizes: mentorship ses- sions with entertainment executives and talent, $2000 grants furnished by NBCUniversal, Dell computers, a one-year subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud and IMDb Pro, and screenings at Academy Award-qualify- ing festivals.
In addition, the films “Smash or Pass”, “Unlucky in Love” and “Leap of Love” won Best Editing, Best Writ- ing and Best Awareness Campaign respectively.
“It’s really all about changing the way people see dis- ability and television and film is what that’s about.” said president and CEO of Easterseals Southern California, Mark Whitley. “When you consider the power of televi- sion and film, I think the film challenge has helped to leverage and to put people with disabilities out front. And so many people have been involved in the film challenge and then also went on to get jobs in front of and behind the camera.”
“We’re in such an exciting space right now. The world is finally taking note that there is a lot of talent, a lot of humor, and a lot of very unique perspectives within the disabled community.” mused director and actor of “Leap of Love”, Madison McLaughlin. “I think that people being able to create their own content, especially on TikTok and YouTube, has been really cool to see. Studios are starting to take note. So, I would love to see more content creators that are disabled, more actors, more people behind the camera that are disabled, get these really big, incredible deals with these huge studios because I think it’s about time that representation is here.”
After seeing the awarded films at the night’s festivities, the future of disabled talent looks bright. And with the involvement of major studios sponsoring each award, it looks like they’re finally catching on.
disabilityfilmchallenge.com
McLaughlin continued, “Our film is a satire comedy. It
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