By Isabelle St-Jean, RSW
Inclusion and Abilities Consultant
As the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival recently came to a close following screenings of captivating films, we are reminded of the power of films to entertain, inform, convey engaging ideas and pose good questions. This year the Festival’s opening featured The Flood which included a character who has autism. Some of you will recall last year’s VJFF opening film Anita depicting a touching story in the life of a young woman with Down’s syndrome. With increasing awareness of the importance of inclusion as well as the gifts of people with disabilities, we see that they are now more often represented in film.
Have you seen the variety of current films about people with disabilities? Here are 3 award-winning films you may like to see and the links to their websites:
Autism: The Musical
Following five LA children over the course of six months, director Tricia Regan captures the struggles and triumphs of their family lives and observes how this musical production gives these performers a comfort zone in which they can explore their creative sides.
A powerful film directed by Emmy Award® winner Janet Grillo (Autism: The Musical), FLY AWAY narrates the story of Jeanne (Beth Broderick, Bonfire of the Vanities, Sabrina the Teenage Witch) and her autistic teenage daughter, Mandy (Ashley Rickards, One Tree Hill). Jeanne has cared for Mandy since the day she was born, growing closer every day to a child who is charmingly offbeat one moment and nearly impossible to manage the next. In the dog park, Jeanne encounters Tom (Greg Germann, Ally McBeal, Friends with Money), an easygoing and accepting neighbor who sparks a romantic interest, but she finds juggling Mandy’s care and her own career leaves little room for a new man. As the pressures of work and her child’s needs increase, she must decide whether or not to enroll Mandy in a therapeutic residential facility. Over the course of a few weeks, Jeanne is confronted with the most difficult decision a parent can make: to let go, allowing her child to grow, but also grow apart; or to hold on tight and fall together.
Statement from the Director
As the mother of a child with disabilities, I was immediately thrust into the challenge every parent must face at some point: meeting the needs of your child when it is at great cost to yourself. Perhaps the very measure of love is what and how much we are willing to sacrifice. Although parenting someone with Autism is particular, the primal drive to do the best for oneʼs child is universal. FLY AWAY tells this story.
Loving Lampposts Directed by Todd Drezner, 2011
As autism has exploded into the public consciousness over the last 20 years, two opposing questions have been asked about the condition: is it a devastating sickness to be cured? Or is it a variation of the human brain — just a different way to be human? After his son’s diagnosis, filmmaker Todd Drezner visits the front lines of the autism wars. We meet the “recovery movement,” which views autism as a tragic epidemic brought on by environmental toxins. Operating outside the boundaries of mainstream medicine, these parents, doctors, and therapists search for unconventional treatments that can “reverse” autism and restore their children to normal lives. We meet the ‘neurodiversity’ movement, which argues that autism should be accepted and autistic people supported. This group argues that the focus on treatments and cures causes the wider society to view autistic people as damaged and sick. Acceptance is the better way, but how do you practice acceptance of autism in a world where the very word can terrify parents? And we meet a too often ignored group: autistic adults. It’s these adults who show just how tricky it is to judge an autistic person’s life. Is an autistic woman who directs academic research about autism recovered? What if the same woman has trouble speaking and uses text-to-speech software to communicate? Is an autistic man who lives in his own apartment recovered? What if his mother must hire people to do his laundry and take him out in the evenings? This wide angle view of autism makes clear what’s at stake in the autism wars. Will we live in a world dominated by autism conferences where vendors hawk vitamins and hyperbaric chambers to parents desperate for a cure? Or will we provide the support that autistic adults need to lead the best lives they can? And can these two worlds possibly co-exist?
Do you know of a film about persons with disabilities that our community would like to see? Please respond to this blog article and let us know.
For further information about the services offered by Inclusion and Abilities Coordinator Isabelle St-Jean, feel free to contact her at 604 257-5151 ext. 223 or e-mail: istjean@jfsa.ca
Jewelles Smith, MA
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