UCL student uses cinema to address dyslexia

Links:

ucl.ac.uk/disability/services/spld" target="_self">UCL Dyslexia Support

Pietro Passarelli (UCL Anthropology) has organised the first dyslexia awareness week film festival to highlight different attitudes to dyslexia.

The five-day festival, which runs from 2 - 6 November, will explore the representation and understanding of dyslexia using cinema as a catalyst. It also aims to promote a discussion on dyslexia and the issues and challenges of its definition.

The format of the festival will see guest speakers interacting with the audience on the issues raised by the films. The festival will also include workshops that will give teachers and students practical tips to improve everyday learning situations within a positive approach framework.

Festival director Pietro Passarelli said: "Fundamentally, we are not interested in 'raising awareness' for dyslexia as it is currently thought of. What we want to do is try and get teachers and students to look at the problems surrounding it and how a medical framework can be altered and shifted into an educational one, to help dyslexic individuals."

"Dysfest is keen to put up for debate how the 'medicalisation' of dyslexia and its subsequent label as a 'disability' exacerbate the cultural issues surrounding dyslexia by making it a medical problem and not an educational one. Where the problem is located has both a subtle and profound effect on the individual, and on how dyslexia is viewed by society."

The festival programme includes the films 'Summer' starring Robert Carlyle, 'Taare Zameen Para', a Bollywood/Disney film based on the life of Akira Kurosawa and 'The Illiterate'. Each film will be followed by a discussion with guest speakers David Pollak, Atif Choudhury and director Orson Nava.

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Dysfest runs from 2 - 6 November at various venues across the UCL campus. It is a free public event. To find out more or to reserve tickets online, go to the links above.

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