Abära, Ireland's first International Disability Film Festival, kicks off Thursday at various venues in Dublin. Among the highlights is a screening of Music by Prudence, winner of 2010 Academy Award for best documentary short, which follows a young Zimbabwean woman with a congenital disorder as she achieves release through song. Prudence Mabhena, the subject, will participate in a conversation following the screening at the IFI. The festival also offers a chance to see Lucy Walker's Blindsight,concerning a group of blind teenagers who climbed Mt Everest.

Says Abära's Aidan Leavy, "These incredible, critically acclaimed films challenge stereotypes and offer different perspectives of lives lived in our world."

For further details of the event, which runs until October 23rd, go to abara.ie.