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Submitted by Doug Hockin
Film Festival Focuses on the Disabled
Sat May 22, 3:45 PM
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - A documentary director whose film was
picked up by HBO says he can understand why some people
might be hesitant to attend a film festival this
weekend spotlighting men and women with Down syndrome,
autism and other disabilities.
The director, Arthur Bradford, concedes that he
himself felt uneasy a dozen years ago before he first
worked at a camp for people with disabilities.
"I thought it would be kind of depressing," he
says. But the lessons he learned about life, happiness
and making the best out of difficult circumstances
inspired him to return to the camp every year and to
make a 2002 documentary, "How's Your News?"
The 83-minute film follows five people with
mental or physical disabilities, enlisted to interview
everyday people they met in such places as alligator
farms in Arkansas; bars in Nashville, Tenn.; and the
Grand Canyon.
"How's Your News?," which already aired on HBO
and will be released on DVD this summer, is among 20
films to be shown Saturday and Sunday at the Sprout
Film Festival at the New York University Cantor Film
Center.
Other featured documentaries include "Bravo
Gloria," directed by Arlene Alda, wife of
director/actor Alan Alda, and "The Collector of Bedford
Street," which was nominated for an Oscar last year
after director Alice Elliott filmed how a community
adjusted to Larry Selman, a 59-year-old neighbor with
developmental disabilities.
Also to be featured is a 2002 Israel documentary,
"My Four Children," about a woman who lost a child in a
terrorist attack only to find hope when she overcame
family opposition to raise four abandoned children who
have Down syndrome.
A package of four films Saturday afternoon focus
on autism. "The Autism Puzzle," a 2003 United Kingdom
documentary, tells the history of autism and current
research into its cause, treatment and prevalence.
"Hillbilly Eyes" explores the world of a profoundly
autistic boy who has most loved one thing, country
music.
Anthony Di Salvo, the festival's founder, said
about 600 people attended the first event last year
when about 15 films were aired on one day. This year, a
second day was added.
"It's a hard sell. That's why we started the
festival. People do not feel comfortable seeing
developmentally disabled people on the screen," he said.
Yet he said moviegoers find wisdom in the films,
which feature people with disabilities rather than
actors or actresses imitating them.
And it's not just the audience who benefits: One
developmentally disabled actor, 50-year-old Seth
Ehrlich, said his experience acting in a festival film,
"The Social Club," has made him happier.
"I feel like I've accomplished something when I
act," he said in a telephone interview. "The more I do
it, the better I become at it."
Di Salvo said the festival grew out of "Sprout,"
a nonprofit organization he formed 25 years ago to
provide vacations for the developmentally disabled.
The Manhattan-based organization once served just
a few, but has grown to more than 2,000 clients,
including hundreds who attend "Sproutstock," an annual
weekend festival in the Catskills.
Di Salvo admits he was scared 25 years ago when
he first confronted people he knew little about. He
thought an excursion would be a disaster when a group
went apple picking only to find that a wind storm had
knocked all the apples off the trees.
One man on the trip said his mother had always
told him to make the most of it when things are down.
So they played catch and visited an outdoor food market.
"They were so grateful going on an apple picking
trip where there were no apples. From then on, it's
been an amazing experience," Di Salvo said.