Capturing more than 20 years combined inclusive filmmaking experience, Bus Stop Films and Taste Creative have pooled their knowledge to develop “The Inclusive Filmmaking Toolkit”. The Toolkit is a free resource for the screen industry, outlining best practice principles to provide support and achieve greater and more meaningful inclusion of people living with disability on both sides of the camera.
Funded with the support of Screen NSW, the Toolkit will better enable filmmakers, production companies and creatives at all levels of the industry to ensure their filmmaking practice is inclusive and that people with disability are better represented in stories about them. With 20% of Australians identifying as living with disability, and as the largest minority group in the world, this is a huge part of the community that could, and should, be better represented in the industry.
The Inclusive Filmmaking Toolkit was developed by Bus Stop’s co-founder, award winning director Genevieve Clay-Smith, together with a team of 15 creatives, 9 of whom live with disability. The Toolkit features case studies, information and advice on how to ensure all aspects of a project are more inclusive and consider the lived experience, contribution and employment opportunities of people living with disability.
Genevieve states “Inclusive filmmaking is a method I have applied to every film I have made throughout my career, and gained many personal and creative rewards from it. Creative collaboration is mutually beneficial and I hope by sharing our methods through the Toolkit, more opportunities for people with disability will open up, and our films and our community will be better for it.”
Partner company Taste Creative works in the commercial arena but follows a similar ethos, Executive Creative Director & Co-Founder Henry Smith notes “Our community is so diverse, and this should be reflected in our content. In pre-production, on set and in the editing suite there are so many opportunities to involve, employ and collaborate with people with disability and Taste is thrilled to give back to the industry with this free resource”