Ariel Baska

Access:Horror Film Festival To Return This Summer Access:Horror Film Festival, focused on the intersection of genre and disability, returns this summer both in-person and online!

Did you hear? You can catch both halves of Blerdy in NY for @accesshorror.bsky.social this August.

www.dreadcentral.com/news/532499/...

My disabled life is worthy.

(After watching Deaf President Now! I am totally ready to fuck shit up)

Vacillating between wanting to plan a spring block party for my neighborhood and wanting to plan an emergency preparedness seminar…por que no los dos?

Building community is hard work, but I’m interested in doing it in intentional ways and proving that there is strength in love and care. This is what I have to hold onto now.

ID: 4 squares depicting how 3 individuals access watching a game. Reality shows two people who can’t see over a fence, one in a wheelchair and one standing in a hole with less than he needs, and one with more than he needs standing on several boxes. Equality shows everyone with the same box, but it is not accessible to the wheelchair user. Equity shows everyone getting the individual support they need, like a box and a ramp. Justice shows the barrier removed—a see-through fence.

A graphic reminder…

So thrilled to see horror well-represented in the Oscar noms with NOSFERATUBSTANCE. Tasty visual treats should get awards.

So I actually cheated because I had a meeting and didn’t have contact with the person outside of Messenger and had to reload for an hour yesterday. I did delete again immediately after tho…

A drawn poster proclaiming “BECOME UNGOVERNABLE” in the corner while purple pigeons swoop and dive, eating food on a city street as a taxi approaches. One pigeon stares uncomfortably closely and inquisitively at the viewer.

Guess what time it is?

FYI I’m logged out of the META things but actually had to delete What’sApp and Messenger from my phone because it’s impossible to log out. Will I ever reinstall? Anyone’s guess!

[ID: on a background of America as if seen from a satellite with sporadic clusters of lights, white lettering reads: Lights out META. January 19-26, 2025. Log out of all META platforms for a week. FACEBOOK-INSTAGRAM-THREADS-MESSENGER-WHATSAPP-GIPHY-METAQUEST-RAYBAN META]

I’m logging out of my Meta-owned accounts starting midnight tonight and encourage others to do the same to send a message. We owe neo-Nazi megalomaniac corporations zero attention at a time when they badly want it.

Posters for my top 8 films, screencapped from Letterboxd

My Favorite Films of 2024-ish

1. Flow
2. Love Lies Bleeding
3. A Different Man
4. Perfect Days*
5. The Zone of Interest*
6. Dahomey
7. The Substance
8. Femme

Real talk: navigating inaccessibility is a huge part of my planning process every single damn time I leave the house. Navigating basic needs shouldn’t be this hard.

On Knowing Your Limits Let the small, soft animal of your body love what it loves. But most importantly, be small. And soft.

New Substack that’s my general reflections on the year - fairly proud of this one.

So delightful to join Mo for this dive into one of my favorite films!

One more thing... if you are a film critic, and you can decide what you cover, I beg you: include shorts in that coverage. Interview filmmakers of shorts. Write about them. Make space for them. Show others that they're important.

Compiling my best films of 2024, I am shocked how few horror movies are making it onto the list - do I need to cram in some last-minute viewing before I finalize? If so, what 2024 horror do you recommend?

Vote for my enormously talented friends and their exciting panel!

In our house, we don’t do Elf on a Shelf.

An orange and black poster composed of 6 squares in a 3x2 arrangement. The first square reads “Friday the 13th, 4:30-6:00 PT, ASL - CART - virtual - open audio description”. The second square has an image of two kids in “ghost” costumes aka white sheets with cut-outs for eyes holding hands. One of them holds a scary-faced balloon. The third square reads: “Presented by Access Horror and Superfest.” On the bottom row, the first square features a bubbling black cauldron. The second square reads, “ Ariel Baska, filmmaker and founder of Access Horror will kick off the event with a discussion of why horror is particularly effective in disability storytelling.” The last image features a wispy skeleton dancing, arms outstretched, with one leg kicking up joyfully.

Join us for Access:Horror Movie Night, a virtual event in partnership with the San Francisco Disability Cultural Center and Superfest - Friday the 13th, 4:30-6pm PT.

Ariel’s Brainings | Ariel Baska | Substack As a multiply Disabled queerdo, horror filmmaker, podcaster, author, and speaker on accessibility, I am opening up my thinking and working process in the spirit of transparency and collaboration. Clic...

Just posted a new Substack on Knowing Your Values, plus an extra - an interview with filmmaker Jayro Bustamante about consent and care in his film RITA.

open.substack.com/pub/arielbaska

the only quote on the IMDb quotes page for Béatrice Dalle [asked how she seduced Rupert Everett] "Rupert is gay, but I am Béatrice Dalle."

ladies, gentlemen, non-binary pals, may I present to you: the greatest flex of all time

Down down down the road… down the witches’ road.

After binging 9 hours straight, I can’t get that damn song out of my head.

#SoQueerAndILoveIt

On Rejection, Reflection, and Generative Conflict What we do now determines everything.

I recently started a Substack to open up my process and my thinking about film and advocacy - this one is all about rejection.

A 1950’s styled propaganda poster with a cartoonish futuristic white blonde man in blue and yellow kicking the Monopoly Man as he runs away with a bag with a dollar sign on it. The sign reads “Refugees didn’t take away affordable housing. Rich landlords and greedy politicians did.”

Happy Thanksgiving- remember to bring this up at dinner!

Hot take #3: So glad they decoupled Little People and Munchkins, while still actually employing Little People.

Hot take #1: It’s criminal the way they split up the song “Defying Gravity.” It utterly robbed it of its emotional power.

Hot take #2: The film marks a definite improvement in the Nessarose storyline, with (finally!) an authentically disabled actor - can’t believe it took them this long.

Time to defy gravity. I’m sure there will be hot takes aplenty on my return. #disabilitywicked #disabledandwicked

Documentaries you can see me in tonight and throw popcorn at my face as desired:

PATRICE: THE MOVIE (Hulu)
HORROR ABLE (Tubi)
ONCE UPON A TIME IN UGANDA (YouTube)

The act of writing is the process of discovering what you really think. - David Hare

Now, more than ever.

A young girl with extraordinarily majestic feathered wings unfurled lies on a narrow bed with a small doll beside her. The image is swathed in blue light. The poster reads “Concordia La Casa Produccion” with the title RITA in large, all caps font. Below the image, the credits read: “Una pelicula de Jayro Bustamante, Giuliana Santa Cruz, Alejandra Vasquez, Andre Aldana, Angela Quevedo”

Highly recommended and dropping on Shudder today: Jayro Bustamante’s lyrical RITA