TOPO, digital creation center, is joining forces with the Festival International de Cinéma Adapté de Montréal (FICAM) to present a 2nd professional forum on cultural inclusion through the arts and digital media.

The forum will provide an opportunity to share ideas on the challenges and opportunities involved in creating accessible media works for different audiences with disabilities.

How can we produce media works that are accessible to as many people as possible?
What are the conditions and innovations that enable the creation of these works in film, video and digital art?
What advances have been made in Quebec with tools such as AI, audio and video description?
Which organisations are developing them? Who are the key players?

The objectives of the professional forum are to stimulate creative alliances to increase the production of works and the emergence of new creators.

The meeting on 15 October 2024, which is free and open to all, will be followed by the opening of FICAM with a screening of films accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing.

Programming Committee : Michel Lefebvre, Eva Quintas (TOPO), Miguel Sorto (FICAM)

Program

Tuesday, October 15th- Forum from 1 to 6 p.m.

1:00 p.m. - Opening statement

1:15 p.m. - Opening conference

The state of play on needs and practices in terms of accessibility and inclusion through the arts and digital media.
Mouloud Boukala, professeur, École des médias, UQAM

What do we know about media works in film, video and digital art that are designed and produced for audiences with disabilities? To what extent do institutions support the inclusive participation of people with diverse abilities? What is being created and what do we need?

2:15 p.m. - Round-table discussion

What tools and professions are needed for cultural inclusion?
Thomas Gaudy, Ludociels for all
Anne Jarry, Association of Blind and Amblyote People of Metropolitan Montreal
Emilie Peltier, director and accessibility consultant
Cécile Petitgand, president and founder, Data Lama
Ariane Plante, visual and digital artist and curator

To better meet the needs of disabled audiences, what practices need to be integrated into the creation and production of media works? What funding, training and institutions are open to these new professions?

3:45 p.m. - Closing conference

Learning and trends in accessibility technologies
Boris Tia, head of Accessibility, CBC/Radio-Canada

What have we learnt from the current presentations? What new uses are technologies, including artificial intelligence, bringing to accessibility? Looking ahead, what trends are emerging to increase the cultural participation of people with disabilities? What can we expect in the arts and media industries?

5 p.m. - Cocktails, discussions and networking

FICAM's opening

7 p.m. - Screenings for deaf audiences and awards ceremony

Nos vies masquées, Marie-Andrée Boivin, Vicky Blouin, CANADA, (1h00)

Poésie de mains, Hodan Youssouf, CANADA, (9min)

Suffocation, Matthew Courtemanche, CANADA, (13min)

Passagère, Martin boucher, CANADA, (8min)

L’air d’aimer quand la flamme devient des lames, Matthew Courtemanche, CANADA, (8min)

Parlèlle, Matthew Courtemanche, CANADA (5min)

Kylvan le pup sourd, Sylvain Gelinas, CANADA, (13min)

Presentations

Mouloud Boukala

mouloudboukala.com

Mouloud Boukala is an anthropologist and full professor at UQAM's École des médias, Canada Research Chair in Media, Disability and (Self)Representation and co-director of the Handicap, Sourditude et Innovations (HSI) Laboratory, his research is part of an anthropology of the media, focusing on the study of situations of disability and how they are portrayed in film, television and comic strips.

Thomas Gaudy

ludocielspourtous.org

Thomas Gaudy has a doctorate in computer science and is co-founder of Ludociels pour tous, a Montreal-based social economy enterprise dedicated to promoting digital inclusion. He is interested in all forms of digital projects with a social vocation, as well as the accessibility of video games. The organisation contributes to the creation and promotion of inclusive, participatory and collaborative digital leisure activities and cultural facilities.

Anne Jarry

raamm.org

Anne Jarry is a member of the Board of Directors and the Cultural Access Committee of the Regroupement des Aveugles et Amblyopes du Montréal Métropolitain (RAAMM). She holds a master's degree in adult education, a 2e cycle in visual impairment rehabilitation and a BA in psychology. After losing her sight at the age of 24, she devoted her adult life to helping blind and partially sighted people cope with the world and facilitating their access to information. She held the position of Executive Director of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB Quebec) from 2001 to 2007, and then that of Professor in the 2e cycle option Intervention en déficience visuelle at the Université de Montréal School of Optometry from 2008 to 2020.

Emilie Peltier

With a degree in Language Sciences, Emilie Peltier is a communicator, accessibility consultant and film-maker. She is self-taught in photography, film, writing and printing techniques. Her deafness from birth influences her relationship with the world, and she is drawn to visual and aesthetic projects that are instinctively and necessarily militant. She has made three short films, including the poetic Matin Ecchymose, presented at some thirty festivals around the world, and a medium-length documentary for television.

Cécile Petitgand

DataLama.ca

Cécile Petitgand is president and founder of Data Lama, a Quebec-based company specialising in data management and AI training for digital democratisation. She provides AI training for public and not-for-profit organisations in the cultural (INIS, ANEL, etc.) and scientific (IVADO, CHUM, etc.) sectors. She is also a data management consultant at the CHUM research centre and manager of the Réseau Santé Numérique du Québec. Cécile Petitgand holds a doctorate in management science from the Université Paris-Dauphine and the Université de Sao Paulo (Brazil), and did her post-doctorate at the Hub santé : politique, organisations et droit (H-POD) at the Université de Montréal on the theme of AI implementation in hospitals.

Ariane Plante

arianeplante.com

An independent artist and curator, Ariane Plante develops projects in the visual, media and technological arts with a wide range of artists and organisations. For nearly 15 years, her reflections have focused on the conditions of our coexistence with the living world, the territory and the environment, and have been embodied in non-linear works and narrative forms. In 2024, as principal creator, she completed a project of sound, narrative and interactive installations produced by the National Film Board of Canada - studio interactif and the City of Quebec. Entitled Ce qui brille dans le noir, the work has been designed to be as accessible as possible. It will be on display at the Gabrielle-Roy library until 2025.

Boris Tia

Boris Tia is Chief Accessibility Officer at CBC/Radio-Canada. He plays a key role in ensuring that the organisation is accessible to both its audiences and its employees. He also has 14 years' expertise in business intelligence. Passionate about emerging technologies, he has covered the annual Consumer Electronics Show for the past 10 years and completed a certification in artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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