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95% buy the item featured on this page: Autism - The Musical  (8)$14.49 |
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1% buy 1001 Great Ideas for Teaching and Raising Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (40)$16.47 |
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Editorial Reviews
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It's hard to imagine an unlikelier feel-good documentary than the uplifting Autism: The Musical. Directed for HBO by Tricia Regan, but truly the brainchild of the vision--and sheer will--of Elaine Hall, the film is both unflinching in its portrayal of autism, and triumphant in the ways it shows connections among the film's subjects. For those dealing with autism--and as the diagnosis grows more common, that would be nearly everyone--this film is enlightening, engaging, and reaffirming. The film chronicles the first theater arts endeavor of the L.A.-based Miracle Project, the creation of Hall ("Coach E"), a playwright and the single mother of Neal, a nearly speechless autistic boy. Through networking, Hall has met a group of parents of children with an enormous range of autistic symptoms and decides to try a workshop in which the children will, in a matter of months, be cohesive enough to perform in a stage production. The film follows Hall from the initial (and skeptical) meetings of the parents, and introduces the several children followed throughout the rehearsal period. Part of the disarming strength of the film is that it changes its perspective on showing the children's personalities. Viewers first meet 14-year-old Lexi when she's singing a musically complex Joni Mitchell song, in a clear, absolutely lovely soprano, in what appears to be a regular singing lesson. Only later do we learn that Lexi, diagnosed with autism as a toddler, has a hard time originating her own speech--though hearing her sing, the viewer would never have guessed. (Her parents still struggle with
It's hard to imagine an unlikelier feel-good documentary than the uplifting Autism: The Musical. Directed for HBO by Tricia Regan, but truly the brainchild of the vision--and sheer will--of Elaine Hall, the film is both unflinching in its portrayal of autism, and triumphant in the ways it shows connections among the film's subjects. For those dealing with autism--and as the diagnosis grows more common, that would be nearly everyone--this film is enlightening, engaging, and reaffirming. The film chronicles the first theater arts endeavor of the L.A.-based Miracle Project, the creation of Hall ("Coach E"), a playwright and the single mother of Neal, a nearly speechless autistic boy. Through networking, Hall has met a group of parents of children with an enormous range of autistic symptoms and decides to try a workshop in which the children will, in a matter of months, be cohesive enough to perform in a stage production. The film follows Hall from the initial (and skeptical) meetings of the parents, and introduces the several children followed throughout the rehearsal period. Part of the disarming strength of the film is that it changes its perspective on showing the children's personalities. Viewers first meet 14-year-old Lexi when she's singing a musically complex Joni Mitchell song, in a clear, absolutely lovely soprano, in what appears to be a regular singing lesson. Only later do we learn that Lexi, diagnosed with autism as a toddler, has a hard time originating her own speech--though hearing her sing, the viewer would never have guessed. (Her parents still struggle with