RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024
Ariel Baska
Ariel Baska is a multi-award-winning, multiply Disabled queer horror and documentary filmmaker, who believes in advocacy and accessibility for historically underserved communities. Their work has played on Alaska Airlines, and at film festivals from Berlin to Mexico City to Mumbai. They have presented with Lincoln Center, SXSW (South by Southwest) and the Berlinale on various topics in disability and accessibility in the film and television industry. They are the creator and festival director of ACCESS:HORROR, a film festival and industry summit celebrating the history, future and impact of disability and horror.
Their current work in progress, Monstrous Me, is a horror memoir and documentary feature about finding agency as a disfigured child in the face of Freddy Krueger, which won the Virginia Humanities Grant.
Regardless of what story they’re telling or what work they’re doing, they care passionately about the margins.
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After an extensive search and interview process, 5 individuals were invited to participate in an intensive session for disabled creatives working in the documentary and unscripted spaces, taking place July 29 – August 1, with additional virtual sessions taking place in partnership with the virtual cohort, May – September 2024. Participants include people with a variety of disabilities ranging in age from the 30s through the 50s. This intensive elevates disabled creatives, focusing on building community, networking, and career advancement. This intensive is in collaboration with Bunim-Murray Productions, National Geographic, and NBCUniversal.
