'Autism: The Musical' Adds to the Public Discussion
Tuesday marked the television debut of Autism: The Musical, a documentary which has been making the rounds of some big-name festivals, including Tribeca and Newport. HBO will be streaming it online for free for the next week.
To be 100% honest, I never would have tuned in if my cousin’s fiancé hadn’t worked on the film. Autism has been receiving lots of press of late, most of it contentious, and the debates as to its causes are divisive and painful to listen to.
I’m glad I sat down to watch it, though, as this movie proved to be none of those things.
The documentary presented, through penetrating interviews with autistic children and their parents, a picture of the lives of these children and their families as they worked towards creating and performing a piece of musical theater. One of the children’s mothers runs a workshop called the Miracle Project, through which she attempts to provide autistic children with the opportunity to perform, and also to belong to a community.
This is all well and good, of course, but why did I feel the need to write about the film? As I said previously, many public discussions about autism are divisive. Watching this film, however, I felt that anyone who had ever felt like an outsider could identify with some of the people being interviewed. Anyone who had ever been seriously depressed, or bullied, or felt out of sync, could find a touchstone with some points of this film.
And as crude as it sounds, I felt like Autism managed to put a human face on autism, and I don’t think I’m too far off imagining that this was exactly what individuals with autism could benefit from–a society that better understands them.
Mary commented:
I have to see this movie, I was at the Tribeca film festival last year and the film was sold out. I have a severely Autistic brother and like having more people see more of their lives, and would like it more if they showed more of the severe ones, which they never seem to do.
molly commented:
Parents are drowning in their situations, too often unable to cut through the constant labor of daily existence to be coherent and objective enough to speak clearly about autism. This film succeeds. Congratulations and thank you!
Mother of a 38 year old who continues to grow......
Trey, Ben's dad commented:
Haven't seen it yet, but will shortly. Agreed, what the autism community needs is a society that better understands children and adults with autism. Thanks for putting that thought in writing.