Archive for April, 2010
The Horse Boy Wraps Up A Month of Adventure and Healing
April is National Autism Awareness Month. Watch the exclusive video below with Independent Lens host Maggie Gyllenhaal who discusses The Horse Boy, which explores one family’s unforgettable journey as they travel halfway across the world in search of a miracle to heal their autistic son. The Horse Boy, airs Tuesday, May 11 at 10 PM, check local listings)
Our national partner The Autism Society, the nation’s leading grassroots autism organization, exists to improve the lives of all affected by autism. Learn more about their research initiatives and programs on their website.
Community Cinema held 42 free screening events for The Horse Boy throughout April. Here are few stories from those events. There is always a lot going on at Community Cinema events.
Bill Zukovsky with his son Andrew
On April 21st, WHYY and Community Cinema hosted a screening of The Horse Boy in Philadelphia. More than 200 people packed the venue, including many parents who are raising children with Autism. To create engagement opportunities, ITVS awarded WHYY’s Learning Lab a grant to support the Family Media Project, an innovative video project that explores how three local families have engaged in their child’s autism diagnosis. Parent Bill Zukovsky shares his experience working with the Family Media Project:
Wow… What an amazing experience! I couldn’t believe I was going to have a camera on my shoulder and a microphone wrapped around my arm while I tried to capture what it was like to be my son, Andrew. There is no way I would even take a photograph, let alone video tape something that was going to be shown online. What was I thinking taking on this project? But let me tell you something, I’m glad I did.
The WHYY Learning Lab creates an opportunity to help others understand what it’s like to be you; your problems, your issues, your trials, and your triumphs.
Rowan holds hands with his father on a ride in The Horse Boy.
Producing Partners are local community organizations that co-present free Community Cinema screenings across the country. Here are a few snippets from a recent event for The Horse Boy. Our producing partners at the San Diego Public Library shared these highlights from their event.
This screening turned out differently from all the previous Community Cinema screenings. Not only did many new attendees show up, the film also attracted several audience members with autism spectrum disorders. There was a mother and her young son who were attending a library film screening for the first time. An older mother with Asperger’s Syndrome has a son in Montana taking part in a horse and autism therapy center similar to the one founded in West Texas by the Isaacsons at the end of the movie. She had read the book before and was thrilled to see the movie. She also saw parallels between the ‘big sky country’ of Montana and Mongolia.
Director of the film, Michel Orion Scott, comments on the many adventures depicted the film as well as the process of making a documentary about an adventure, “So off we went — into the magnificent, unknowable land of Genghis Kahn, where horseback riding started; where the word shaman (“one who knows”) originated; and where shamanism is, even today, the official state religion. As I galloped through the countryside in my attempt to keep up with the family, a camera in one hand and reins in the other, across the rugged and
Michel Orion Scott, director of The Horse Boy
isolated Mongolian landscape, it all seemed surreal and impossible. I was thrown from my horse, contracted Giardia, and faced each day with a level of aching soreness beyond what I had ever experienced. And all of this for a film? Yes, but even more for the sake of a boy with autism whose parents were willing to go, literally, to the ends of the earth to find healing for their son. To me, this is the true beauty of the story. The beauty of the outcome is that the family did accept it, while at the same time, Rowan was healed. I challenge the viewer, as I was challenged in the making of this film, to imagine how we can embrace the idea of ‘healing’, while understanding that unique individuals who think and behave differently than the status quo, are an integral part of human culture and development. Perhaps the line between the healer and the healed is not as clearly defined as it appears.”
We talked to a lot of people at the Community Cinema Seattle event and asked them to share their personal adventures both big and small. Even a short journey can change one’s life. Adventure can happen on your own block or on the other side of the globe. Some folks shared their stories on video and some wrote out their thoughts.
Amber, an audience member wrote, “I’ve travelled mexico and lived near the Arizona-Mexico border and witnessed extreme contrast of developed vs. less-developed countries – as well as the tourist exploitation of Mexico.”
The Horse Boy will air nationally on Independent Lens on May 11 at 10:00 PM on PBS (check local listings).
An Audience Member Shares His Experience at The Horse Boy in DC
The Horse Boy Film: A Viewer’s Reaction by Bill Kirst
Community Cinema Audience Member Bill Kirst
I first heard about the story of the Horse Boy when my sister, Marguerite Kirst Colston, was going on a book tour its author, Rupert Isaacson. During her trip, my sister recommended I pick up a copy of the book at the bookstore. It wasn’t until I got an invite to the pre-screening of the film adaptation that I remembered I had ordered the book on my Kindle. I was excited to hear that the story had been turned into a documentary-style film.
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon when I walked over to Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C., to see the Community Cinema screening. There I met up with my sister, her friends, and co-workers from the Autism Society. After a brief introduction about the PBS Film Festival, the movie started.
Immediately I was introduced to Rowan, a boy with autism. Rowan is playing with his toys in the living room. His dad, Rupert, is filming and trying to get Rowan’s attention, hoping he will say his name. Rowan doesn’t respond to his father and focuses attentively on his toys. This was a very familiar scene to me as an uncle. My nephew, Camden, also has autism. I was immediately captivated by Rowan and his similar behaviors. The tantrums, the inability to communicate, his repetitive moment — all of this was just like what I had seen in Camden.
Yetta Myrick (left) and Marguerite Kirst Colston speak at a Community Cinema screening of “The Horse Boy” April 11 at Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C.
As I listened to Rupert narrate his story, and echo his frustrations at not being able to communicate with his son, it tore at me. I thought about my nephew and his mom and sister and how it challenges them as a family each and every day. I recognized the same struggles in Rowan as I do in Camden. At times, I felt as if Rupert was reading from the same script or playing to same soundtrack that my sister had once lived.
My emotions ran from low to high as the film progressed and I was reminded of the extreme intelligence and true innocence these children bring to us everyday. I watched a scene unfold where Rowan organizes his animal toys in logical and natural categories without any prompting or instruction. For years I saw similar behavior from Camden, who would take anything apart and put it back together in a calculated and organized fashion with no instruction or guidance. I never underestimate the cognitive power of children with autism. I know they experience life at a heightened level, and I believe that can help us see things differently, perhaps more clearly.
The moment in the film I can’t forget is when Rowan runs up to a horse and immediately establishes an unexpected connection with the majestic animal. When Rupert risks putting his son on the horse’s back, he experiences a near miracle. While in contact with the horse Rowan enters a state of relaxation and ease he has not experienced before. Rowan speaks in a full sentence to say “He’s a nice horse.” This simple exchange opens up a world of possibilities for Rowan and his family as they embark on a journey to better understand autism as they heal and grow as a family.
Community Cinema screens The Horse Boy in Philadelphia
The Horse Boy, (airing Tuesday, May 11 at 10 PM, check local listings) explores one family’s unforgettable journey as they travel halfway across the world in search of a miracle to heal their autistic son. On April 21st, WHYY and Community Cinema hosted a screening of The Horse Boy in Philadelphia. More than 200 people packed the venue, including many parents who are raising children with Autism. To create engagement opportunities, ITVS awarded WHYY’s Learning Lab a grant to support the Family Media Project, an innovative video project that explores how three local families have engaged in their child’s autism diagnosis. Candid and eye-opening, the project not only provides a platform for education but a forum for families to tell their own stories. Parent Bill Zukovsky shares his experience working with the Family Media Project:
Bill Zukovsky with his son Andrew
Wow… What an amazing experience! I couldn’t believe I was going to have a camera on my shoulder and a microphone wrapped around my arm while I tried to capture what it was like to be my son, Andrew. There is no way I would even take a photograph, let alone video tape something that was going to be shown online. What was I thinking taking on this project? But let me tell you something, I’m glad I did.
I got plenty of footage of Andrew in school, playing around the house, and more interviews than I can even use. But what happened next would stay with me for a lifetime. Sitting in the editing room, I got to see the raw footage and what I saw just amazed me. For the first time, I sat back and got to see how other people, both Andrew’s peers and the adults in his life, saw him. How accepting they have become of him and all his quirks, and how he is starting to fit in with the world around him. The longer the editing went, and the more we attempted to get everything under the five minute time limit, the more my chest swelled. Of course, while I’m sitting there barking orders — “No, I don’t like that” … “Cut it here” … “That has to be in there somewhere!” — I’m choking back the tears of joy in seeing my son join a world that I never thought he would enter.
The WHYY Learning Lab creates an opportunity to help others understand what it’s like to be you; your problems, your issues, your trials, and your triumphs. But during the process, I learned a lot, and not just about how to frame a shot or cut a clip. I learned that my son has come a long way in his development. He does have the capability to lead a typical life. He has a lot to offer the people around him and can teach them about patience and understanding. It gives me hope and desire to keep giving Andrew all the opportunity I can to make his life something great.
- Bill Zukovsky, participant in the WHYY Learning Lab’s Family Media Project
The Horse Boy will air nationally on Independent Lens on May 11 at 10:00 PM on PBS (check local listings).
From Trash to Trade: The Garbage Dreams Game
Garbage Dreams Game
Filmed over four years, director Mai Iskander’s documentary Garbage Dreams goes inside the world of Egypt’s Zaballeen (Arabic for “garbage people”) to reveal the lives of three teenage boys born into the trash trade.
Premiering on Independent Lens on April 27th (check local listings), the broadcast of Garbage Dreams is accompanied by the Garbage Dreams Game, in which players assume the role of the Zaballeen. The game demonstrates that recycling is not just good for the environment; it’s also sound economic practice.
Players start with cash and expenses, one very hungry goat, one neighborhood, and one paper recycling factory. To grow their business and build efficiency, players can make investments in new equipment to recycle other materials, buy extra trucks, hire workers, or expand into wealthier neighborhoods.
Players sort through trash and recycle what can be recycled in Cairo — paper, organics, aluminum, tin, plastic, and glass — all against a ticking clock, sorting through trash piles with the speed, strategy, and efficiency required to match the 80 percent recycling rate of the Zaballeen within 12 rounds of play.
Corresponding lesson plans for grades 9-12 and middle school complement the game and the film, and further explore the issue of recycling and the globalized economy.
Goats, trucks, and territories; organics, paper, and tin. Learn how Egypt’s Zaballeen turn trash into cash. Play the recycling game.
Happy Earth Day From ITVS, Community Cinema, Community Classroom, and Independent Lens!
Earth Day. Maybe for you it evokes happy thoughts of planting trees and gathering with friends to celebrate the planet and toast to its good health. Maybe it’s one of those extra-dose-of-guilt days when you’re extra conscious of separating your trash and ashamed of the fact you still use an internal-combustion engine to get to work. Perhaps you’re aware enough of the climate crisis, species on the verge of extinction, and the plight of the rainforest, that today you’ll just duck your head back under the covers and wait it out until tomorrow.
Whichever Earth Day style fits you best, we’d like to offer up some helpful resources to make your day a little happier and greener. First off, check out our slate of green-themed films for the occasion, including Dirt! The Movie, Garbage Dreams, and A Village Called Versailles, all airing this month on Independent Lens. And from last season, revisit Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai. That one’s definitely worth revisiting for its inspiration factor alone.
Ah but as Kermit said, it isn’t always easy bein’ green. For example, have you ever been confused about what you can recycle and what you can’t? Same here. As part of our film Garbage Dreams we’ve put together a handy tip sheet for you. Even better, we’ve launched a super-cool interactive recycling game so you can put your newfound wisdom to work. And check out a resource we found when we were researching this: Earth911.com, a site that lets you know what recycling facilities are near you so you can really pump up your recycling efforts.
As they say, we’ve only got one planet so we better treat it right. We salute the filmmakers, community organizers, and educators who work every day to ensure that somebody speaks for the Earth when it can’t speak for itself. Stay green, people!
Los Angeles and San Francisco Proclaimed April 20th to be “Dirt Day”
The cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco issued proclamations yesterday naming April 20th to be “Dirt Day” in honor of Dirt! The Movie, the award-winning documentary previewed by Community Cinema in March. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry will sign the official Dirt! Day Proclamations in their respective cities today, to ignite the discussion about safeguarding soil and the billions of organisms it contains.
Dirt! The Movie tells the story of the underappreciated stuff beneath our feet. Narrated by award-winning actress, author and activist, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dirt!, tells the story of Earth’s most valuable and least valued source of fertility from its miraculous beginning to its current crippling degradation. Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, the film deftly combines science and humor as it digs into the history and current state of the living organic matter from which we all come and where we will all one-day return. An eclectic group of passionate dirt lovers appear in Dirt! – from world-class biologists to Rikers Island convicts, from community activists to Nobel Laureates – to offer viewers answers to problems while inspiring us to clean up the mess that we have created.
Don’t miss Dirt! The Movie on Independent Lens (check local listings).
Watch an interview with Jamie Lee Curtis, the narrator for Dirt! >>
Dirt! The Movie Premieres Tonight on Independent Lens on PBS
“Charming… Dirt! The Movie digs deep into soil. -San Francisco Chronicle
“An invigorating look at an invaluable substance we take for granted that makes the case that ‘dirt might be more alive than we are.’” -Los Angeles Times
Community Cinema previewed Dirt! The Movie at over 50 free events nationwide. We engaged audiences in communities large and small to challenge their understanding of soil, dirt, and our Earth.
It’s under our feet and under our fingernails, but what is it? And how did it get there? Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, find out how industrial farming, mining and urban development have led us toward cataclysmic droughts, starvation, floods and climate change. Dirt is a part of everything we eat, drink and breathe. Which is why we should stop treating it like, well … dirt.
Dirt! The Movie premieres tonight, Tuesday, April 20 at 10:00 on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).
Community Cinema Screens Dirt! The Movie in Monterey, CA
Community Cinema recently hosted a screening of the Independent Lens film Dirt! The Movie in Monterey, CA. The film looks at how industrial farming, mining, and urban development have endangered soil and resulted in cataclysmic droughts, starvation, floods, and climate change. Find out what happened at the screening from Elsa Dooling of the Pesticide Watch Education Fund, who helped organize the event.
Bike powered smoothies at the Dirt! Monterey screening
Torrential rains washed over the Monterey Bay, and heavy winds ripped through the trees. But, at about 3 PM a sudden break in the storm gave me the opportunity to quickly throw on my rain gear and join our organizing team to begin the planned outdoor festivities that were to precede the April 11th screening of Dirt! The Movie. As if by design, the weather softened and welcomed the community out to enjoy smoothies made with bike power, and to get dirty as they made clay and wildflower seed balls and watched compost demonstrations. The energy and momentum of the event got into full swing as the sun peaked out and rainbows could be seen over the theater. Guests mingled and enjoyed delicious treats donated by local restaurants and bakeries, and even sipped wine donated by the Monterey County Film Commission. Table displays offered the audience a chance to learn about the partner organizations that collaborated to bring the event to life: Pesticide Watch Education Fund, Monterey Green Action, Monterey County Film Commission, and ITVS. Our good friend (and local photographer/activist extraordinaire) Michelle Magdalena Maddox, was even screen-printing recycled t-shirts with a beautifully designed calendar of all of April’s Earth Day events right on the spot. It was amazing!
The Horse Boy at the San Diego Public Library
Rowan holds hands with his father on a ride in The Horse Boy.
Producing Partners are local community organizations that co-present free Community Cinema screenings across the country. Here are a few snippets from a recent event for The Horse Boy by Michel Orion Scott. Our producing partners at the San Diego Public Library shared these highlights from their event.
This screening turned out differently from all the previous Community Cinema screenings. Not only did many new attendees show up, the film also attracted several audience members with autism spectrum disorders. There was a mother and her young son who were attending a library film screening for the first time. A visitor from Holland, who travels to San Diego every spring and regularly attends library screenings when she’s in town, revealed a history of autism in her family. An older mother with Asperger’s Syndrome has a son in Montana taking part in a horse and autism therapy center similar to the one founded in West Texas by the Isaacsons at the end of the movie.
She had read the book before and was thrilled to see the movie. She also saw parallels the ‘big sky country’ of Montana and Mongolia. The audience was moved by the Isaacsons’ literal journey to Mongolia and back as well by the family’s emotional journey from confusion and anger to acceptance. Many people expressed positive feelings about the film, one person mentioned to library staff that The Horse Boy was “the best film library has screened in the ITVS series”. Interestingly, the audience was younger than usual and included three Mongolian students from UC San Diego.
Denise Zmekhol on the Making of Children of the Amazon
Children of the Amazon (airing this month on public television and Link TV — check local listings) follows filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the indigenous children she photographed 15 years before. Her journey tells the story of what happened to life in the largest forest on Earth when a road was built straight through its heart. Beyond the Box caught up with Zmekhol who shares her story about the making of Children of the Amazon, one of the few films about the Brazilian Amazon made by a Brazilian filmmaker.
Denise Zmekol with Chief Almir Surui
I traveled to the Brazilian Amazon on several occasions between 1987-1990 to assist on television documentaries. During my journeys, I had the opportunity to visit many indigenous and rubber tapper communities, always with my camera by my side. What caught my eye were the children. Born to parents who had relied on the rainforest for their survival, these children were growing up surrounded by new ways — ways that were destroying the forest. I also photographed the legendary rubber tapper Chico Mendes and his family. Chico had become renowned the world over for his nonviolent resistance movement to protect the rainforest.
Fifteen years later — and a world away — I returned to these slides, which were never printed, never shared. The images brought back a particularly searing memory: a phone call from Chico in December 1988, asking me to film his funeral. Two weeks later he was shot dead by a rancher. Stirred by faces of the children in my photographs and haunted by Chico’s untimely death, I was inspired to travel to the Amazon again — this time, to make Children of the Amazon.
In 2008, six years after I shot Children of the Amazon, I returned to the Amazon to film with the Surui tribe again — this time documenting its unique collaboration with Google Earth Outreach. The partnership, a result of Chief Almir Surui’s request that Google help raise visibility for his tribe, involves training the Surui people to use Internet technology to protect their forest, preserve their culture, and empower their people.
—Denise Zmekhol, Producer/Director of Children of the Amazon
Get broadcast listings for public television and Link TV and learn more at www.childrenoftheamazon.com
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