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IN FACE OF DISABILITY – XXXX MAGAZINE ISSUE 1

IN FACE OF DISABILITY

In Face Of Disability (25:18) directed by Indira Cesarine, is an inspiring documentary featuring interviews with 3 women revolving around the controversy of disability discrimination. Disability expert Lara Masters, disabled model Kelly Knox and UN Representative Jill Van Den Brule break their silence in regards to this controversial topic. The 25 minute documentary was edited by Emmy nominated Michael Burlingame.

CONTRIBUTORS BIOS:

LARA MASTERS:

www.marieclaire.co.uk

Lara Masters is a writer, actor, model, TV presenter and owner of burlesque fashion label Kiss My Cherry. As the first disabled person working in mainstream TV she presented ITV’s “That’s Esther” with Esther Rantzen and Heather Mills and recently was a judge on the award-winning BBC series “Britain’s Missing Top Model”. She is a spokesperson for disability issues and her writing work spans many genres including script editing, poetry, music and journalism. Lara records many of her exploits in a weekly diary blog for Marie Claire magazine.

JILL VAN DEN BRULE:

www.unicef.org

Specializing in human rights and humanitarian policy, Jill Van den Brule has been working in the field of Education for over 10 years. She participated in UN negotiations leading up to the adoption of the Disability Convention. She has a Masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, a DEA from L’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (“Sciences Po”) and a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University. She also taught a Masters level seminar at Sciences Po. Ms. Van den Brule speaks French, Spanish and Italian. She worked with the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF as well as with numerous non-governmental organizations on education policy and children’s rights issues. She has been to close to 50 countries and recently produced a series of documentary films profiling examples of exclusion from around the world.  Her current position is with UNICEF.

KELLY KNOX:

http://www.lethalmodels.com

http://www.kellyknox.com

Kelly Knox was born in July 1984, and raised in Enfield, where she still lives today. Winner of Britain’s Missing Top Model, the show was inundated by hundreds of applicants, but Kelly was crowned the winner after her consistently beautiful shots, positive attitude and personality won the judges over.

Kelly was born without a left forearm. Before entering BBC3’s “Britain’s Missing Top Model,” she had always rejected society’s notion that she is disabled – even at the tender age of seven she refused to wear a prosthetic arm. Kelly entered the competition in the hope of dismissing society’s preconceptions about what it means to be disabled, and hoped to pave the way for others in the same situation to break out of the constraints traditionally created by the label ‘disability and offer inspiration to those who need to develop confidence in the face of negative attitudes towards disability.

After winning BMTM Kelly done a shoot for Marie Claire shot by top photographer Rankin. So far her interviews include This Morning with Philip and Fern, BBC Breakfast, The Daily Mail, The Sun, BBC1 Xtra, femalefirst.co.uk, Disability Now Magazine and The New York Post

Since the show Kelly has supported the BGC Charity Day for Scope. Kelly attended the Reach (the association for children with hand or arm deficiency) Family Weekend and AGM where she gave a positive and inspiring speech to parents and the children where she received a standing ovation. She also was part of a panel for an open discussion with the Student Union about Disability at Strathclyde University in Glasgow where she finished the evening with a speech.Kelly kicked off an auction of celebrity shoes for Mines Advisory Group (MAG) in November, to help raise money for landmine victims. She has filmed Ready Steady Cook, which was aired in February 2009.

Kelly has recently joined partnership with Raleigh International, where she supports Raleigh’s ‘can do’ attitude.

INDIRA CESARINE:

www.indiracesarine.com

INDIRA CESARINE first discovered her love of photography aged 15, while taking a summer school course at Parson’s School of Design in Manhattan. By the time she had graduated high school Cum Laude from Choate Rosemary Hall, she had exhibited 4 one-woman shows of her photographic work at the esteemed Paul Mellon Arts Center. She was the recipient of Choate’s prestigious Kaufman Award in “Photographic Art”. While completing a triple major in Art History, French Literature and Women’s Studies at Columbia University in New York and Paris, France, she began shooting for a variety of top modeling agencies including Elite, Ford, and Wilhelmina Models. Once she finished her degree, she went to London to pursue her interests in photography and journalism. Within a year she was appointed Editor at Large of the British magazine “Don’t Tell It”, and began shooting for many magazines and clients in England, the US and Europe. She is currently represented internationally with agents in New York, London and Milan.

Her photography has been published in numerous international publications including British Vogue, British GQ, British Marie Claire, Tatler, Flaunt Magazine, British Esquire, Elle, L’Officiel, French Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, In Style, The Times Magazine, Grazia, Oyster, Out, Lush Magazine, Surface, Arena and Vogue Bellezza.  She has worked commercially with clients including Cerutti 1881, Nino Cerutti, Charles Jourdan, Christian Dior, Kenzo, Seven Jeans, Agent Provocateur, Wonderbra, DIM, Passionata, Harvey Nichols, Neiman Marcus, Harrod’s and The Body Shop. She has photographed celebrities for such titles as In Style, Tatler, and Esquire including Alicia Keys, Collin Farrell, Dakota Fanning, Macy Gray, Amy Winehouse, Anna Paquin, Lauren Hutton and Jimmy Fallon among many others. She also has collaborated with record labels such as Sony BMG, Jive Records and Virgin Records.

Aside from her photographic work, she began her career as a director with the short film “City of Love”, which was featured at the Short Film Corner at Cannes Film Festival 2007. In January of 2008, she was appointed Fashion Editor at Large of Lush Magazine. In 2009 she launched the online magazine “XXXX Magazine” showcasing multimedia based conceptual films, documentaries, photography and contemporary art. Other upcoming projects include “The Goddess Manifesto” a documentary, book and installation project, and “Inspiration, Organisation” a multimedia based non-profit group.

Indira and her work have been featured internationally on TV shows such as MTV, E! TV, Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, HBO’s Special “Ford Supermodel of the World”, “Make me a Supermodel” UK and US.

MICHAEL BURLINGAME:

http://sceneinteractive.com/talents/controlgroup

http://imdb.com/name/nm0122154/

Michael Burlingame is a filmmaker and founder of the Control Group, a New York film and video production company. His independent films have been featured in many international film festivals, including the London Film Festival, the Brussels International Festival of Film and Video, the Chicago International Film Festival and the Krakow International Festival of Short Films.

They have also screened at museums such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the American Museum of the Moving Image, the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston).

His work in music video includes the Janis Joplin documentary Nine Hundred Nights, as well as projects withPaul McCartneyStingRobert Plant, Yoko Ono, and Bob Dylan. He received an Emmy nomination for his work with Sting.

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