The Family Room: Autism Video and Film

April 23, 2007

Autism Video and Film

Thanks to Jordan for passing this along: Autism Speaks, an organization dedicated to changing the future for all who struggle with autism spectrum disorders, has created a music video of the Five for Fighting song, "World," which features images of children with autism, and their families. It is a truly moving video and was the work of Bill Shea. The band is generously donating $0.49 to Autism Speaks for each time the video is viewed. The funding goes toward research studies to help find a cure. When you have a moment, please click here and pass it along to your friends and family. They are aiming for 10,000 hits, but hopefully we can help them to surpass this goal.

On a similar topic, it seems that we are moving beyond the Rain Man era to a more nuanced (more, not perfect) depiction of life with autism. Here are two that I know of: I actually saw Magnificent Seven (no, not the one with Yul Brynner), on a plane ride back East with my family. I kind of liked it, actually, with several rather significant reservations, not the least of which was how fresh and gorgeous Helena Bonham Carter managed to look despite raising three special needs boys and three typical girls--with no visible source of income. And today I heard about another BBC movie called After Thomas that apparently aired last night. It's going to run again, so you might want to check it out if you haven't seen it. And if you have seen either of these, let us know what you thought.