The case study outlines a path forward for film festival organizers to increase accessibility through captioning. It examines the effects of such an initiative on the organization, staff, and budget as well as the impact on the filmmakers who screen at their festival.
The author, Cassidy Dimon, employs year-over-year data gathered from the Film Event Accessibility Scorecard as well as interviews with key members of the New Orleans Film Society’s leadership team and two filmmakers who, upon acceptance into the New Orleans Film Festival, re-created captions for their film to comply with the festival’s captioning policy.
“The New Orleans Film Festival is our biggest platform to connect artists
we support with diverse audiences who can get inspired and challenged by
transformative cinematic experiences. We believe that a film festival can be
a place where all communities meet, especially those who were denied or limited from access in the past.” - Monika Leska, Managing Director, NOFF
