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A review of the HBO autism documentary: How To Dance In Ohio

By on October 13, 2015 in Autism, Autism Review
How To Dance In Ohio

How To Dance In Ohio

So you’ve watched all the autism movies and documentaries and found that some were hard to watch, others you could relate to quite well and some were even enlightening but I can guarantee that you’ve never seen one as powerful as How To Dance In Ohio.

Synopsis

How To Dance In Ohio is a documentary by Alexandra Shiva that follows a group of young autistic adults as they prepare for their first formal dance. They must learn how to ask each other out, how to handle rejection, how to hold a conversation, how to dance and in some cases… share that first kiss. More specifically the film focuses in on 3 young woman ranging from 16 years old to 22 years old as they navigate family life, moving on from their family and having a job.

Release Date

October 26, 2015 on HBO

Review

You get a sense that this film is going in all the right directions as soon as the film starts when the first scene opens with actual autistic people talking to you and expressing to you how they feel. There are no actors, there is no narrator, there is no big production made about what we’re about to see. There is simply a young woman, with autism, in front of the camera, saying “We like to socialize, but it’s just, we don’t know how,” and from that moment, you know you are watching the right movie.

As the viewer, you get to sort of ride along with this group of autistic young adults over the course of 12 weeks as they prepare for what is quite literally, one of the scariest events possible… a formal dance. I know that most people would chuckle at that or think it’s silly because the average person tends to look forward to social functions like that. This film not only explains but shows you very clearly why it is as scary as it is for those many people with autism. While other films with actors and writers try to create the perfect situation or accurately portray what may happen, How To Dance In Ohio has only very real people in very real situations dealing with them as best they can.

The real strength that How To Dance In Ohio has is it’s ability to capture very real moments as they happen, as though there was no camera there at all. When you see these people cry, or behave in some awkward way or when they laugh, you feel how genuine that is. You suddenly realize what all those other autism films have been missing all along. The actors in autism movies have incredible talent and did great work in their respective films but no one can ever truly understand or convey what it’s like to be autistic quite like an actual autistic can.

It isn’t until you’re watching a documentary like How To Dance In Ohio that it hits you; you will never know what it’s like to be autistic without talking to an autistic.

I fear that the only downfall for this film and any film or book that does such a great job of depicting the struggles (and triumphs) of autism is that those who do not have autism directly affecting their lives won’t give it a chance until they have to. How To Dance In Ohio is such a great documentary but it’s also a very powerful tool for autism awareness, showing people what autism is really like in a way that not many other films have been able to. In one scene, Marideth, a 16 year old young lady with autism is talking with her family at the dinner table and all seems great until she just gets up and walks away. She’s still a part of the conversation and everyone is still happy but she’s just up and gone. To the average person, that would seem odd or maybe even rude. But to an autistic or someone close to someone with autism, we totally understand that!

There are so many key moments in How To Dance In Ohio where I feel that most people wouldn’t even notice but as an adult with autism myself as well as the parent of a child with autism, I find myself feeling this very strong bond between myself and those on the screen in those moments. They’re so tiny and likely insignificant to anyone else but I just know that those already within the autism community are going to pick up on them in the biggest way and go back and watch them again because they touch them so deeply. Powerful moments likes these can’t be scripted nor prepared for, they are real moments that can only happen spontaneously from someone that is living in that moment and Alexandra Shiva captures them so perfectly in How To Dance In Ohio.

As I watched, I messaged friends that are also parents of children with autism, telling them that this is going to be a hard film for some people to watch. I relayed some of the things that the autistics within the film would say, such as “Cartoons don’t judge you like people do,” and we all felt our hearts sink together. We know that feeling.

As hard as How To Dance In Ohio is though, it’s also incredibly wonderful to watch with so many moments of laughter, triumph and of course, tears. None of it scripted, none of it prepared for or anticipated.

If I could make every person on Earth who has no prior experience with autism sit down and watch any one movie to understand what my own life with autism has been like, How To Dance In Ohio would be that film.

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The Story of Luke – The autism movie you have to see

By on March 13, 2013 in Autism, Autism Review

The Story of Luke is a movie that I’ve been following closely for some time. Even while they were filming, I was already a fan of their Facebook page and eager to see the end result. I’m very pleased to report, I was not disappointed.

Synopsis

95min. A comedy about Luke, a young man with autism who is on a quest for a job and a girlfriend. Starring Lou Taylor Pucci, Seth Green, Cary Elwes and Kristin Bauer.

The Story of LukeReview

The first thing the synopsis tells you is that it’s a comedy about Luke, which while true, is such a very small part of what this movie really is.

First of all, while it will make you actually laugh out loud in a few places, in others it’ll simply have you smiling and thinking “I totally get that.” While in other places, it will make you want to stand up and shout “You tell’em!!” and then shortly after have you crying your eyes out. And I’m a dad. I’m not supposed to cry. I did.

While this is the story of Luke, hense the title,  it’s also the story of those around him. Because in this film, even though almost everyone around him is “normal”, no one around him is really all that normal either. There’s the sometimes crazy, sometimes wise grandfather who even manages to be crazy and wise at the same time in some instances. There’s the depressed aunt, the midlife crisis uncle, the rebel son/cousin and then the doesn’t fit in with society daugther/cousin. There’s many more that Luke meets along the way as well.

I think the closest movie/story you could compare this to is Adam. I don’t know if you’ve seen that but it’s about a lonely man with Aspergers and his relationship with a girl. In Adam, the movie is very much about Adam, he’s always the focus. But it does give you a very real world glimpse into the life of a person with autism/Aspergers.

In The Story of Luke, while Luke is obviously the main focus, there’s so much more going on. His family evolves, his grandfather evolves, the people he starts to work with all evolve. His efforts, his honesty, his quirkiness and his mere presence makes the lives of those around him change. And it all feels very real. You never get the sense of there being a script or that someone had written this. It all feels so natural, as though it’s a true story.

One big difference I’d like to point out, between Adam and The Story of Luke is that, in Adam, it can be quite painful to watch because you envision your own child as Adam, later in life, living these struggles. It quite literally hurts to imagine your child growing up to be Adam and having a difficult life. It’s very well done in that sense. With Luke however, you never quite get that sense of your child being in his place. And it’s not a bad thing!

As a man on the autism spectrum myself and having a son with autism, I never once got the sense Luke was trying to be me or that my child could be Luke some day. I did have a few dozen “that’s just like my son!” moments though.

Luke stands apart and while very perfectly representing life on the spectrum, he never comes off as representing all autistics, only himself. And that’s quite powerful when you think about it. To relate to him, to see so many similarities and yet, seeing him as being his own man and not just a future version of your own child, is a feat not easily accomplished.

The movie is very much in your face with a lot of swear words, which are very cleverly done actually, very in your face boldness and off the wall terminology that will clearly make little sense to Luke but it’s never done to an extent that you feel it’s vulgar. Still though, it’s probably best to not have the little ones sit in to watch with you if you don’t want them hearing that language.

The movie truly is the story of Luke trying to be a man. Not just to “get a girlfriend” as in Adam but to walk out the door, get a job, get a girlfriend and, as his grandfather would say, “get his $hit together”.

I’ve watched The Story of Luke twice in one day and I still want to watch it over and over again because it’s just so well done. Each and every character is so perfectly portrayed and real. Luke is just so lovable, you really can’t help but want to be there, in the movie, to tell him how awesome he really is. Also, not many movies can shock me with what it says and then make me want to stand up and cheer at how the protagonist responds and then make me want to cry just a few scenes later but this movie does all that and more. And it always feels natural. Like I’m watching real life unfold in front of me.

The Story of Luke is not a movie to put in place of other movies about autism but it’s definitely a movie that you absolutely must include in your autism movie list. You’ll relate, you’ll learn, you’ll adore, laugh and cry.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, I highly recommend that you see this movie.

Awards

  • Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the 2013 Omaha Film Festival
  • Best Film (shared with “Missed Connections“) AND the Audience Award for Best Narrative at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival
  • Best Narrative Feature Award at Festivus Film Festival
  • Audience Award at SF Indie Fest  (The San Francisco Independent Film Festival)
  • People’s Choice Award for Best Film at The Saint Augustine Film Festival
  • Best Film, Best Actor (Lou Taylor Pucci), Best Director (Alonso Mayo) & Best Trailer at the Irvine International Film Festival
  • Audience Award at the Bahamas International Film Festival!
  • “American Indie Audience Award” from Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
  • “Best Film” at the San Diego Film Festival

When/Where to see it

The Story of Luke comes out on April 5th in select theaters but it will also be available on iTunes as well.

Check out the trailer here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/thestoryofluke/

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When a child with autism first starts to recognize bullying

By on December 3, 2012 in Autism

I find that movies are great ground breakers for my son Cameron as he tries to learn and understand social situations. We try to point out who is sad, who is happy and why.

ParanormanThis week, we watched ParaNorman for the first time. It’s a fun animated ghost movie where Norman, a quiet little boy, is able to see and talk to the dead.

This causes him all sorts of grief as the adults shake their head when he walks by and other children call him “freak” and laugh at him.

Near the beginning, introducing the main character and his life, he gets caught up in what the dead are doing, completely missing what his teacher is saying and the other children laugh at him. Other accidents happen, they laugh some more and it ends with him sulking away from his locker that says “freak” on it, for the second time that day.

It was at this point that Cameron, completely on his own, said “aww… poor kid.”

Now, I’m not going to get into the whole “do children with autism lack empathy” thing because, they don’t. However, one aspect that is quite common is the difficulty in being able to look at a situation from another person’s perspective. This is something that is difficult for all children. It’s just more so with autism.

When a child sees another child do something funny, they laugh. They don’t recognize if it’s embarrassing, hurtful or mean.
When a child sees another child as strange, odd or bizarre, they treat them as such.

Many times, it’s fully intentional and they truly are a bully. But sometimes it’s simply a lack of understanding that what they say and do is so hurtful.

I find, the best way to teach Cameron that what he says and does, while funny to him, could hurt someone else, is to show him from an entirely fresh perspective, as a 3rd party.

And that usually works to a point. He sees it, recognizes it… doesn’t truly understand it.

So when this part in the movie came on and he not only recognized the bullying but expressed his emotions about it, I was a bit shocked.

Of course this sparked a whole conversation with him about bullying and how bad someone can feel when you call them names or laugh at them but not as a lecture but rather, as something he was starting to understand and even explain back to me.

For any child, this is a great step. For a big brother, this is a momentous occasion, especially for his little brother. And for a child with autism… this is huge.

He gets it. And he expressed it.

I’m very proud of my boy.

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An attempt to make “autistic” into the new r-word

By on March 16, 2012 in Autism

If you are in the autism community in some form or another, chances are that you’ve already heard all about the uproar surrounding the new 21 Jump Street movie… if not, keep reading.

So 21 Jump Street was a rather popular television show back in the day, in fact, it launched the career of several people including Johnny Depp.. and one other person quite well known within the autism community, Holly R. Peete.

Now, they’re making a movie by the same name but instead of teenage angst, real life, drama and emotion, it’s a ridiculously stupid comedy filled with cheap laughs.

Don’t get me wrong, I happen to love stupid comedies. I laugh even at cheap laughs.

The problem is that in one particular trailer, the one guy looks at a chart that his officers made and says “That looks like s#!t. What are you, autistic?”

Enter the uproar.

You can see it for yourself, it happens around the 3:31 mark:

?t=3m31s

At this point, I want you to re-watch it and this time, imagine he’s saying the word “retarded” in place of autistic. See now what their intention was?

This is simply not ok. This is simply wrong.

There’s many reasons, but let’s look at two of them:

First of all, anyone who knows anything about autistics knows that, while not all autistics are super organized or particularly amazing at building charts… if you were going to go by the stereotype, as is the intention here, you’d expect that thing to be freakin immaculate. Let me put it this way, if they are going for the whole rain man of over the top stereotypical, stupidly, outrageously funny offensive things to say about autistics, that thing would have been the best damn chart anyone has ever seen.

So ya, they clearly don’t even know what they’re talking about if they can’t get the stereotype right… not that it would have been right either but certainly closer to some semblance of reality.

Secondly, this opens a door that starts a journey down a very dark road. Stereotypes, innuendo and hate in general don’t start out at full force… it starts small.

And if this is the type of precedent they’re trying to set for stereotypical movie humour about autism… let’s just say that none of us would want to see where that road will lead.

I’m all for overly exhagerated stereotypes in search of a laugh… I’m all for the extremely over done ridiculousness of what is real in an attempt to get a chuckle… but this is not ok.

For the record, Holly R. Peete, who makes a cameo in the new movie, has said that she had read the script in advance and that line was not in there at the time.

On Twitter, she said:

So thrilled that #21Jumpstreet is getting such critical acclaim- The show brand means everything to me-so proud to an OG but as a mom of a son w/ autism I’d be totally disingenuous to say I was not bothered by the use of the word “autistic” in the film. I’ve reached out to Sony PR & co-director Phil Lords re:why the choice of “autistic” as a punchline is so upsetting to our community.
Phil Lord co-director of #21Jumpstreet said re: “autistic” line: “We set out to make a funny, irreverent & outrageous movie but not to hurt anyone’s feelings. Our stars are the butt of all our jokes and we feel terrible and deeply sorry that anyone would feel otherwise.”

You can read the tweets here:

https://twitter.com/#!/hollyrpeete/status/180375413527298049
https://twitter.com/#!/hollyrpeete/status/180376189796487168
https://twitter.com/#!/hollyrpeete/status/180383033591992321

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