#Andrea Dowdell Godard

[yestolerancepro]

With a little help from my friends Tolerance Project Extra Celebrates International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Introduction

Hello Today marks the annual International Day of Persons with Disabilities I thought I would celebrate that by writing and posting this one off blog first a little bit of background.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3) is an international observance promoted by the United Nations since 1992. It has been observed with varying degrees of success around the planet. The observance of the Day aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. It was originally called "International Day of Disabled Persons" until 2007. 

Every year since 1992, the UN announces a theme for International Day of People with Disability. The 2023 theme is “United in action to rescue and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for, with and by persons with disabilities.”

Obviously, that is a bit of a mouthful. In simpler terms, the theme calls for us all to work together to make the world a better place for people with disabilities — it shouldn’t be up to them alone to constantly fight and advocate for themselves

So in plain English for those that don’t speak UN this years Day for disabled people is all about working together so the title of this blog originally written last year called with a little help from my freinds could not be more apt  

What was the Tolerance Group?

If I have got my sums right 'Tolerance' came into my life round about time I was still at Shelley High School in about 1995 It was created out of one of the summer school play schemes that Kirklees used to run. We had such a good time one year that this particular group wanted to see more of each other to socialise and do other projects.

With the help of one of the play Scheme organisers called Craig Wood he suggested we get Together as a youth group.

We began as a small group of people, calling ourselves the Deighton Group. As the local PHAB group was shutting down, the group got a lot bigger and we changed our name to 'Tolerance'. It was Craig I think who came up with the name we began appearing in local media and were becoming more well known, a local development officer who was called Jeremy Walker organised us into a fully-functioning group. I was asked to be co-ordinator, a job which I did for 7 years. Gemma Blagbrough was my second-in-command and transport secretary. With the help of the local development officer, we applied for funding for a variety of projects. As co-ordinator for the group I found myself doing a lot of the admin work, filling out funding forms, writing newsletters, doing radio and newspaper interviews, and going to various meetings to ask for money to get projects started.

Tolerance The Movie

The idea behind the film was one of Jeremy Walkers many ideas and it was a good one the aim of the film was simple We wanted to make a film that reflected the life of young disabled people in the 21st century. It was important to us as a group that it was funny, and that it would capture the humour within the group. At the same time, we wanted it to deliver a serious message about what it was like to live with a disability day-to-day.

Jeremy can be seen in a cameo in the finished film as Julie’s Taxi driver Julie was played by actress Claire Abbot

The film has five main themes: Employment, Social Life, Transport, Accessibility, and Relationships. We chose these themes because they were important areas of all the lives of the group members.

Also If we were going to make the film we wanted to be involved with it as much as possible provide as much of the cast and crew in the finished film as we could. In the end other members of Tolerance who were not in front of the camera worked in the sound and make up departments  

After a couple of false starts we approached a company called Eclipse Productions run by Richard Hellawell.

The script was written by Richard Hellawell with input from Tolerance members; myself and Jeremy Walker were the film’s producers. In keeping with the humour we wanted the film to portray, we included film spoofs of Officer and a Gentleman, Star Wars, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

One major difference of opinion was who was going to act in our film. Richard wanted people he had worked with previously, where as myself and some of the group members had envisioned that we would use disabled actors. Was our film going to be stopped in its tracks before it had even started?

In the end we managed to reach a compromise and two of our disabled members appeared in the finished film: Gemma Blagbrough as the cinema manager; and Michael Weaver as a blind person using Huddersfield Train Station.

Filming began on 16th August 1999 but the most stressful days shooting was at Huddersfeild Train Station

Shooting scenes at Huddersfield Train Station

From Rob Martin’s photos, the train sequences where shot on 17 August 1999. I remember the day as being very stressful and bursting into tears!

Michael for me gives a very natural performance, and he and Claire Abbot work well together.

On the photo front we have 35 photos of this day’s filming – most of them in black and white. As it was Michael Weaver’s day, when he was playing a starring role, he appears in quite a few of the photos having a laugh with our leading lady, Claire Abbot. There are also some photos, when he was being made up by our make-up lady, Andrea Dowdall Goddard.

Since working on Tolerance, Andrea has worked on episodes of the Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, Coronation Street and the film, Guest House Paradiso. Andrea’s credits are on IMDB:  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1350227/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Gemma Blagbourgh was the second member of Tolerance to appear in the film, Gemma Blagbrough, appears as the cinema manager. All her scenes were shot on the last day of filming I had the day off that day but the rest of the cast and crew had to get up at 5.30am to shoot the cinema scenes. Gemma said about her Tolerance experience afterwards:

‘Yes I really enjoyed the whole experience of working on Tolerance. The only thing I didn’t like were the early mornings; the earliest being half past five in the morning when I had to film my scenes. It was long hours, but I wanted to show people with a disability that you can work and you can work in positions of authority.’

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Photos

Me with my producers hat on with the Tolerance film director Richard Hellawell sorry I look so miserable

Claire abbot with Michael Weever

Gemma Blagbourgh helping Michael learn his lines

Michael having his make up done

Gemma Blagbourgh as appears in the Tolerance film as the UCI cinema manager

Paul Lockwood doing his job as a sound man on the Tolerance film the picture also features Actors David Smith and Claire Abbot

More of the Tolerance production Team at Huddersfield Train station along with Director of Photography Ian Medley this photo features Liam Centeno who was given the nickname the party animal by the production team and Jonathan Lyndley

Notes Thanks to the following people for the pictures Rob Martin and Helen Batty thanks to Gemma Blagbourgh for the interview this new blog was put together using material from the the following blogs Gizza Job I can do that part 2 Tolerance Ability not in Ability a producers commentary Part 1 In the Beginning Tolerance Ability not in Ability a producers commentary Part 2 Transport and Tolerance Ability not in Ability a producers commentary Part 4 Accessibility

Thank you also to wikpedia for information on the history of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities

I would like to thank 2 members of Tolerance that are not mentioned in the blog and don’t feature in the photographs Claire Louise Wallice and Sandra Brennan whose contribution to the Tolerance film was just as valuable as everyone else’s