A multiply disabled filmmaker explores the untold power of horror cinema in shaping disability and gender identity - challenging how society sees cinematic monsters.

Monstrous Me is a project rooted firmly in Ariel’s questioning of disability representation. Horror, as a genre, has always held a mirror to society's darkest fears and prejudices. It has a unique ability to amplify societal biases, laying them bare for audiences to confront.

Ariel Baska is a multi-award-winning, multiply Disabled queer horror and documentary filmmaker who believes in advocacy and accessibility for marginalized communities. Ariel is festival director of Access:Horror, a festival and industry summit celebrating the history, future and impact of disability and horror. They wrote and directed the horror short, Our First Priority, about medical gaslighting, which won the BAFTA-qualifying Advocacy Award from Superfest Disability Film Festival. As a producer, Ariel works in documentary, with numerous projects on the festival circuit, including Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters and Tish about the social realist photographer, Tish Murtha. They were a speaker at SXSW in 2022 and 2023, and is a fellow of Docs in Progress, the Portland Art Museum, and the RespectAbility Entertainment Lab. Ariel is a podcaster, non-profit owner, and internationally-published writer who curates creative spaces for disabled filmmakers. Their work can be seen in many places, but their creative multiverse is most visible through Ride the Omnibus, Ariel’s podcast and non-profit parked at the intersection of pop culture and social justice. Regardless of what story Ariel is telling or what work they’re doing, they care passionately about the margins.

Accessibility is a defining characteristic of Monstrous Me.

Many of our key team members are part of the disabled, d/Deaf, hard of hearing, neurodiverse and English language learner audiences, and their creative and technical input is invaluable.

Producer and Accessibility Coordinator Kiah Amara (IndieVisible Films) has ensured that each aspects of production is friendly to everyone on the team. Kiah, along with other field experts including the Social Audio Description Collective, is also overseeing the integrated creative captioning in all versions of the film, and a separate creative audio description track, including haptic suits to appeal to a wider audience within the disability community.