The NSW North Coast is the latest location to house Bus Stop Films’ Accessible Film Studies program, with the training to launch at TAFE NSW Coffs Harbour Education Campus this month.
Delivered in partnership with TAFE NSW, the program offers young adults with intellectual disability or autism a film school experience. The class works together with industry professionals to create a short film that’s submitted to film festivals around the world and potentially broadcast on TV.
Participants learn all aspects of the filmmaking process including script development, casting, sound, lighting, and camera techniques as well as production design and costuming.
The program, which already launched in Melbourne, the Blue Mountains, Perth, Launceston, and Brisbane, heads to Coffs Harbour through the efforts of disability advocate Laura Daley who worked with Coffs Coast Autism to raise the funds needed.
Bus Stop CEO Tracey Corbin-Matchett said the combined support of TAFE NSW and Daley, along the local disability community, had been “amazing”.
“The response to the program has already been so phenomenal,” she said.
“I am so excited for the program’s impact on the lives of creative young people with disability and the screen industry in the Coffs Harbour region.”
TAFE NSW head teacher for screen and media at Coffs Harbour Education Campus Sara Bowen said partnering with Bus Stop Films was a “fantastic opportunity” to ensure that industry-focused training available to students on the North Coast region is accessible and inclusive for all.
“We are thrilled to support a program that will contribute to both the local creative industries and our community as a whole,” she said.
Bus Stop’s Accessible Film Studies program is open to people aged over 17 living with mild to moderate intellectual disability or autism. The 40-week rolling program will be delivered on Saturday afternoons from February to December in 2024.
Interested participants are invited to attend free taster workshops in the coming months so they can get a feel for the program and the classroom space. Each workshop topic is different.
Find out more information about the Accessible Film Studies program here.