Crip Video Productions performs with Teatro Paraguas theater!

 Margot Cole, John Diodato and Izabela Ginda from the Crip Video Productions film "A Stroke Of Endurance" http://cripvideoproductions.com/astrokeofendurance.php are in a Zoom play! Friday, December 18 at 7:00 p.m Mountain Time. "Home for the Holidays: Con Amor y Gozo", a Zoom play by Alix Hudson Teatro Paraguas' annual holiday espectaculo A Musical Piñata for Christmas VIII with scenes from previous community celebrations. http://teatroparaguas.org Free! An inclusive play with disabled actors and non-disabled that children can enjoy!

Full details are reposted with permission from Teatro Paraguas: 

Teatro Paraguas presents A Musical Piñata for Christmas VIII on Zoom & xerb.tv

WHAT: 8th Annual A Musical Piñata for Christmas community celebration

WHEN: Friday, December 18 at 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: Live on Zoom, available afterwards on xerb.tv

Zoom link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kUJ-DG9JTzuTIfgKgVGHCg 

Free, donations gratefully accepted. teatroparaguas.org Xerb link to watch after December 23 https://xerb.tv/channel/teatro-paraguas/virtual-events/1559 

On Friday, December 18, 2020, Teatro Paraguas will present A Musical Piñata for Christmas VIII, an annual community celebration for the Holidays. This virtual offering features a short play by Alix Hudson and Paola vengoechea Martini, entitled Home for the Holidays: Con Amor y Gozo, which will be live on Zoom. Afterwards the audience is invited to join us for a virtual gathering.

The play will be posted afterwards on xerb.tv with videos of short scenes and carols ad holiday music by the Teatro Paraguas Orchestra from previous community celebrations.

Alix Hudson & Paola Vengoechea-Martini's short play, "Home for the Holidays: Con Amor y Gozo", is a Spanglish romp of Advent (and Chanukah) 2020. In Home for the Holidays, the 20 actors of all ages from our Paraguas family are also a literal family -- desperately trying to cobble together a "normal" Christmas for the family matriarch, Mama JoJo (JoJo Sena de Tarnoff). But group Christmas preparations on Zoom don't prove easy in the midst of the pandemic. Mama JoJo's daughters (Cristina Vigil, Juliet Salazar, Jeni Tincher, Alix Hudson, Sharla Stearn, Julia Gay, Paola Vengoechea-Martini) each take different approaches coping with the stress, from remedios to music to micromanagement, and Tio Padre Froggy (Rudy Fernandez) worries about composing his famous Misa del Gallo homily. While the teenagers (Luca Martini, Shaunti Sitonik, Amaya Smith) are more than okay with the lax oversight, their little primos (Logan Gay, Josephine Tincher, Emilia Martini) worry about the rest of the family. Eclectic Uncles (Stephen Jules Rubin, Argos MacCallum) remind us of our Musical Piñata for Christmas tradition, now in its 8th year. And observing this locura are the New York cousins, who have no excuse not to attend the family Christmas in its online format. The NY primos are played by New York City-based Crip Video Productions http://cripvideoproductions.com company members, Margot Cole, John Diodato, and Izabela Ginda. Will the familia pull off the perfect rendition of Mama JoJo's favorite carol, "Vamos Todos a Belén," despite the odds?? Join us at 7pm on December 18th -- on Zoom! -- to find out.

DISCLAIMER: This online production has no connection to Crip Video Productions. Crip Video Productions does NOT receive monetary gain directly or indirectly from this play. This is an entirely separate project. This event is posted by Crip Video Productions for advertisement purposes only! All copyright belongs to original owners!  

More news from Crip Video Productions like presentations and guest posts coming soon!

Disability Advocacy online presentation

 

Today(November 19th 2020) we had another presentation over video conferencing call that also included disability rights advocates/activists outside of the immediate Crip Video Productions circles which added a new perspective to the online discussion. We talked a lot about Cerebral Palsy, visual impairments and issues that black disabled people face. We got questions about what disabilities were genetic, which disabilities were not genetic, and how to help disabled people that are bullied. One person asked about Disability Studies. We discussed surgeries for Cerebral Palsy and organizations that are meant to help disabled people find employment. We met audience members with invisible disabilities. The turnout was probably one of the largest audiences we have had online. About 79 people including one person from the UK. We had such a large turnout with a ton of people asking for another presentation to be created! So we will make that happen.

Super Special thanks to everyone involved with this live video presentation! Crip Video Productions has full permission from all the people involved in the presentation to write this blog post.

In other news, the collaboration project with the working title "Students Talk" is coming along well. 

World Stroke Day 2020

 Today October 29th 2020 is World Stroke Day 2020. In appreciation of the stroke survivors who have inspired us such as one stroke survivor who allowed us to interview her personally to add to the authenticity of Professor Ben’s character, symptoms and recovery process, in our film  "A Stroke Of Endurance" and other survivors who supported our film “A Stroke Of Endurance” from the very beginning of its creation, and after like our wonderful new fans who are stroke survivors that let us into their worlds https://cripvideoproductions.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-stroke-of-endurance-featured-on.html Crip Video Productions would like to now be a part of World Stroke Day every year! 

We wrote a post for World Stroke Day 2018 here

https://cripvideoproductions.blogspot.com/2019/01/screening-and-world-stroke-day-2018.html and for World Stroke Day 2019 here  https://cripvideoproductions.blogspot.com/2019/10/world-stroke-day-2019.html 

Please read our previous posts linked for a poem by a cast member of "A Stroke Of Endurance" for World Stroke Day and, reminders and encouragement for Stroke Survivors! 

To watch “A Stroke Of Endurance” for free with open captions and audio description, and share it with other stroke survivors and their loved ones for World Stroke Day see here http://cripvideoproductions.com/astrokeofendurance.php We hope "A Stroke Of Endurance" is a great resource for all stroke survivors and their loved ones for World Stroke Day today and everyday!

This year, during the ongoing pandemic, Crip Video Productions would like people to be aware that according to current research COVID19 increases the risk of having a stroke, especially ischemic stroke, and if you have already had a stroke, you might be at a high risk of developing complications of COVID19 coronavirus. 

In other news, we met an autism advocate on a Zoom call about higher education for individuals with intellectual disabilities, named Michael Lettman who is allowing Crip Video Productions to share his website  https://masterml9502.wixsite.com/livingwithautism 

 and videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyIwZZi9fPPyYQXaIAw7wwg 
 with our fans. Check them out and share! Michael Lettman's website is a good resource for those who want to know about higher education and autism. 

Our friends at Teatro Paraguas also have a XERB channel now! https://xerb.tv/channel/teatro-paraguas/virtual-events Support Teatro Paraguas! (Please note! Crip Video Productions is not responsible for content on these external links!) 

We have more Crip Video Productions screenings, presentations and projects planned for November 2020.

World CP Day 2020: More private screenings

 October 6th 2020 is World Cerebral Palsy Day. Today and everyday Crip Video Productions celebrates the achievements of those with CP all over the world by depicting characters with Cerebral Palsy living vibrantly and involving people with Cerebral Palsy in all our film productions. We apologize that we don't often post on World Cerebral Palsy Day. Luckily a fan reminded us this year! Special thanks to all Crip Video Productions fans.  More information about Cerebral Palsy can be found on our "About Page" on the main website. 

One way Crip Video Productions adapted and innovated like many others with Cerebral Palsy was by moving all of our operations to an online format. Crip Video Productions is still operating entirely remotely due to Coronavirus. 

On September 27 2020 we did a private screening and presentation through videoconferencing call discussing the films, education, IEPs, accessible teaching techniques, and transition plans. We talked about the term "Crip". Some of the people at the screening were paras in training or worked with people with developmental disabilities and intellectual disabilities in their daily lives. We discussed the Americans with Disabilities Act and what needs to still be improved regarding disability rights policy and perceptions of disability in the media and perceptions in general. We discussed other mainstream disability documentaries. One of the audience members was film studies instructor. There were a lot of questions about Cerebral Palsy. 

After the screening we received feedback via emails from various members of the audience. One person shared their experience of being limited and frustrated by an IEP, another shared that they thought the "Better Dead Than Disabled" trope in media was pure propaganda. Many audience members asked us to present for them again. 

We have full permission from all the people involved to write this post. Special thanks to everyone involved with this screening!

Margot Cole continues to work on “Students Talk” with Mary Lynn Navarro and with creators in Santa Fe New Mexico USA. Margot Cole performed as an understudy as a character with Cerebral Palsy in the Zoom play "She Kills Monsters" back in August.  More screenings are being planned for November 2020. 

Live Video Presentations Summer 2020

As the COVID19 pandemic is ongoing Crip Video Productions continues to operate well online. 

On July 21 2020 Crip Video Productions did another video call presentation on disability. We had more of the disabled and non-disabled cast members of “Crips Not Creeps” and “A Stroke Of Endurance” presenting.  A lot of the presentation was focused on Cerebral Palsy, as well as visual impairment and another disability called dyspraxia. We talked about the ongoing effects of coronavirus on the disability community since our last COVID19 talk. We talked about IEPs, disability terminology, social model vs medical model of disability, hypotonia, hypertonia, and AFOs. We talked about the 30th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the positive impact and rights the Americans With Disabilities Act provides to our cast and crew and all other disabled citizens. One person asked if everything was hard with a disability and we responded that disability is not suffering or tragedy. We discussed media and disability portrayal and noticed non-verbal people were more rarely depicted in the media. One person asked if “disability” should be used instead of “disorder”. One person asked if disabled kids tend to be overprotected. One woman asked us if we had advice for disabled kids and parents of disabled kids and even brought up the idea of Crip Video Productions talking to kids and parents as well as more college faulty in the Fall of 2020.  We got very positive feedback about the presentation after it ended. 

Please contact Crip Video Productions via email if you want to use the films as online teaching tools. 

Please note that we have full permission from all people involved with the presentation to write this post. 

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. 

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!