Saturday, May 23, 2020

Comics and feedback

Mark Pauling, an actor from our film “A Stroke Of Endurance”  who plays a college student in Ava’s class in the film, is selling some awesome comic books on Ebay here https://www.ebay.com/usr/calamity_collectables Please check it out! Please note!: Crip Video Productions does NOT receive any monetary gain from the sale of the comics! Please contact them through Ebay for help if needed, NOT Crip Video Productions.
We got more feedback on our online video calls from viewers saying they felt empowered by the presentations. The viewers said they now have a more positive view of disability and did not realize Cerebral Palsy came with a very sensitive startle reflex. Some viewers said they had never met anyone with the spastic diplegia type of Cerebral Palsy before meeting us.
It’s also “Stroke Awareness Month” for our fans with strokes in May. Please share “A Stroke Of Endurance” with stroke survivors this month. 

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Adapting due to COVID19-Live video presentations

We are writing to you, our international fans from social distancing and hope that our fans, especially fans who are high risk and have disabilities are staying healthy. 

"A Stroke Of Endurance" has 21 likes on youtube as this post! I heard from a new film fan via email that she found my film "A Stroke Of Endurance" to be a "soothing comfort" to her in isolation during coronavirus. 

Crip Video Productions had multiple in person screenings planned for Spring 2020 including a continuation of the creation of the media project “Students Talk” with Professor Mary Lynn Navarro. Unfortunately: Due to the virus any in-person Crip Video Productions projects and screenings are cancelled and/or delayed until further notice, but I'm doing presentations via video call and made a series of pre made, pre recorded totally private videos throughout April 2020. I had to learn new video call softwares. On Tuesday May 12 2020, we did a 1hr and 15 minute long private live stream video call for a few college classes. Myself and my actors, Tim Snoha, Daniel Lirano, and John Diodato presented. We had about 45 people on the video call. We discussed the films "Only Those Who Limp Allowed", "Crips Not Creeps" and "A Stroke Of Endurance". We discussed coronavirus and the effects of the virus on the disability community. We answered questions related to general disability issues and specific coronavirus issues that the disability community faces. The people who joined the live video included some fans from previous screenings. One person from a pervious screening shared a funny story in which a fire drill occurred during the middle of my talk at a previous screening. My actor Tim Snoha gave a beautiful, very poetic description of what Cerebral Palsy is. Daniel Lirano gave examples of the different types of Cerebral Palsy. John Diodato talked about blindness. One student expressed to us that she was sadly grieving the death of a relative due to COVID19 which led to a discussion of suicide and mental health. Another student expressed that after meeting us she felt she needed disability accommodations in school. Many students said we inspired them. Many students enjoyed how self confident myself and my actors were. Many people on the call enjoyed having a connection to other human beings during the pandemic albeit via a computer screen because they missed being around people. One person who worked in the school system asked how we as a society could improve education for disabled students. An able bodied person commented that hearing our experiences as actual disabled people helped her have a more inside view of disability. 

Even after the presentation I received even more questions via email about therapies for Cerebral Palsy, disability discrimination, and plans for future films. 


This blog post is posted with full permission from everyone involved. Thank you so much to every single person who joined the video call!