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Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival

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In 2026, Cinema Touching Disability Houston took place on Saturday, August 1st at McNair Hall in Houston Christian's University. We screened the winning films from 2025's Austin Festival. Read more about each film!

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Schedule

5:30 Doors

6:00 Program begins, with welcome by CTDFF staff

6:30 Selected Shorts block 1

• Different All My Life: The inspiring story of Sherry, a talented singer whose life has been defined by perseverance and courage in the face of adversity.
• In Case of Fire: A disabled college student gets stuck on the second floor of a library with a bomb and an elevator that doesn't work.
• Refrain: A deaf maximum security prisoner undergoes an experimental medical procedure to acquire early release and be reunited with his daughter, however the procedure doesn't go to plan.
• Gum: A child with Down syndrome, falls in love for the first time in his life and begins a journey of new emotions he never knew existed.

7:15: Brief intermission

7:30: Selected Shorts block 2

• Pathfinder: Pathfinder is a short documentary that follows Frank and Carrie, two residents of Pathfinder, a unique open-access community for individuals with Down syndrome.
• Grandpa Has a Broken Eye, Mom is an Adventure: Four kids, age 5 to 15, share their thoughts on aphasia and show us how they communicate and interact with someone, who has difficulties expressing themselves verbally.
• Quad Life: A young father’s world flips upside down after an accident. This is his story of reinvention as he chases normal and navigates life as a creative and quadriplegic sound designer.
• Take Care: A film crew documents Jo's journey to hire a caretaker...against her will. Along the way, Jo not only finds an awesome caretaker in Nat, but also a true buddy.

8:15: Brief Intermission

8:30: Selected Shorts block 3

• Living Proof: Living Proof is an intimate short film that highlights the lives of Paris and Engelic, two strong leaders and advocates within their disability communities.
• Dreamscapes: Dreamscapes is a genre-blurring experimental film exploring mental health not as a diagnosis, but as a shifting inner reality—at once painful, beautiful, glamorous and strange.
• Simple Machine: Simple Machine is part portrait of an architect who became an amputee in midlife, and part meditation on the beauty and challenges of classical mechanics in the ingenious tools of our everyday lives.

9:00 Closing remarks, end of program

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