Autism: The Musical
- AUTISM: THE MUSICAL follows the extraordinary acting coach Elaine Hall, five children with autism, and their parents as they heroically mount a full-length original stage production. Through trial and error, tears and laughter, these incredible families learn to communicate their feelings in song and performance, finding solace and joy in the act of creating. A veritable feast of astounding bre
Product Description
Autism: The Musical follows the extraordinary and innovative acting coach Elaine Hall, five autistic children, and their parents as they improbably, heroically mount a full-length original stage production. Through trial and error, tears and laughter, these incredible families learn to communicate their feelings in song and performance, finding solace and joy in the act of creating.
A veritable feast of astounding breakthroughs and heartbreaking hardship… More >>
Gotta love the irony here — a feel good film about a disability yet no closed-captioning for disabled people.
Docurama doesn’t caption hardly any of their DVDs. They don’t care about hearing-impaired viewers.
I give it a ZERO rating because the DVD is totally USELESS to hearing-impaired people. Shame on you Docurama.
Don’t spend your money on a company that distributes a film about a disability but doesn’t make it accessible to many disabled people.
Rating: 1 / 5
Filmed in 2005-2006, this documentary documents the work of The Miracle Project in its first year. The goal was to bring children on the Autism Spectrum together to prepare for a stage production, a musical performance. The participants would learn, grow, and have positive experiences through the months of preparing for the show, the process was educational and a therapy of sorts, with the actual performance being the culmination of their work.
The creator of The Miracle Project is Elaine Hall, a mother of a boy with Autism. The show opens with her telling her story of her marriage and hopes to be a mother, of her infertility struggle and their dream of parenting was fulfilled when they adopted a toddler from a Russian orphanage. Only after coming home and experiencing numerous problems, was the boy finally diagnosed with Autism. After trying many therapies she credits Stanley Greenspan with giving her the idea to go into the child’s world in order to connect with them and to draw them out and to be a part of the rest of the world. Her son responded well to alternative therapies with actors and dancers who were able to connect to her son more than the mainstream therapists did. She had this idea and she did create and run a structured program, a nonprofit organization called The Miracle Project, that would invite children on the Autism Spectrum and their typically-developing siblings perform a stage production together.
The film focuses on the entire process from conception to planning, rehearsing, and culminating with seeing parts of the final production. There is a large cast of children in the musical but this film focuses on the lives of five children who are at different areas of the Autism Spectrum. We meet the parents of the featured children and hear their stories from birth through noticing something was wrong, how they were diagnosed, some of the therapies they tried and of the child’s current strengths and weaknesses. We see how the child appears on the outside and to us as strangers and we hear from the parents what the children are `really like’. We learn what types of education they are getting and of some struggles with the educational system. We learn also that some marriages were strained and how some of the couples separated or divorced and as a nice balance, see Elaine Hall begin dating a new man which we find out at the end, culminates in marriage. Other examples of how Autism changed the parent’s lives is one mother suffered badly with depression and another gave up an acting and modeling career to dedicate her time to full-time mothering. How Autism affects Autism affects the entire family, even sometimes extended family, was clearly shown. The dedication of the parents to find the best care and education for their children is clearly seen. Different methods of education are being used by the children with varying degrees of satisfaction and progress. We also hear the parent’s concerns about what their children will be like as adults and what their lives might be like as adults. The parents speak with brutal honesty from the heart.
I feel the film was a good mix of optimism and feeling happy for the children’s growth and development that occurred as a direct result of their participation in the musical while also showing the negative side: the challenges and struggles of the children themselves as well as their family’s problems. I shed both tears of joy and tears of pity for the children and the families as I watched it. I wanted to reach out and hug the children and praise them, as well as give their parents encouragement and kudos for their hard work.
Some of the best parts were the interviews with the children where they explain what life is like for them and what bothers them and what makes them happy. Discussions of the problems of and why children with Autism choose to retreat into their own world and bullying issues at school touched me deeply. Bullying is an issue for one child and bullying is one of the bigger topics discussed as a challenge to chidlren’s socialization and as a problem in public school. When the least verbal child is shown how to use a device to type his thoughts out, I was surprised (based on his outside appearance and actions) how eloquent he was and what he had to say.
As of today people are still debating the exact cause of Autism or if it is a combination of many things. This film doesn’t concentrate on that topic. This film doesn’t discuss all the different therapies and how to treat Autism. Instead the film gives just enough background information on the families to learn some things about their journey. It is clear that all the parents are working hard to find the best care and services for their child. Some things these children and their parents say may help parents of children on the Autism Spectrum, inspiring them to action, help sustain their dedication, or at least that they are not alone.
I feel this movie may help other people understand Autism more and may raise the concern about what our society needs to be thinking about and doing about Autism. This Autism problem doesn’t seem to be going away, there is still no easy or miracle cures yet. We need to think about things such as getting a correct diagnosis and not giving misdiagnoses, about getting an early diagnosis, about right and best therapies and services at the earliest age possible, about better options in the public education system and lastly, how our society can help adults with Autism survive and thrive if they are unable to fully care for themselves.
I felt the movie was very well balanced between the general information and challenges that Autism presents, with the hopeful and uplifting parts and seeing things that elicit a smile, and the story of the musical production itself. For me this was first and foremost about Autism and the real people living with it, and secondarily about the musical and The Miracle Project.
This documentary was filmed in 2005-2006 and was released in 2007. It has won multiple awards including two Emmy’s in 2008. It aired on HBO in 2008 and was released on DVD on May 13, 2008.
Check your public library to see if they have a copy in circulation. If not, consider suggesting your library purchase a copy for their holdings. Most libraries have a special fund set aside to purchase media requested by its citizens. If you have HBO check their schedule for airtimes. Or consider purchasing a copy. Currently, Amazon.com sells it at a discount. It should go without saying that this belongs in the lending libraries of all Autism support groups.
In some of my reviews I mention issues for parents who are considering having their children consume the media I’m reviewing. My note to parents who are considering having their children watch this, (as I did with my own children) is: this film contains a few uses of the profanity word f–. It also discusses one parent who formerly was a Playboy centerfold and shows two of the photos from the magazine, one a backlit but darkened body silhouette that clearly indicated she was nude and another where she was scantily clad in a tasteful yet erotic presentation. This film has a rating of “not rated”. After viewing this once I decided to watch it with my children as they are struggling to accept and tolerate the different behaviors of their cousin. Many topics are serious such as mentioning an affair, marital separation and divorce, and clinical depression. One parent mentions the option of killing herself and then says she hopes her child dies before she does (because she worries of who will be caring for her in adulthood). If you are considering showing this to your children I suggest you view it first and make your own choice. I don’t believe this movie was ever intended for young children to watch but I felt in our family’s case that it had some good things that I wanted my children to see and then we discussed it.
Rating: 5 / 5
this movie was great, watched it with the whole family, and we all learned alot!
Rating: 4 / 5
I saw this on TV, it was good. The kids are cute and it has good info about autism and living with autism. Good show. I cried a good cry.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a well done film about autism, both about the children who have the condition and the parents who deal with it every day. My wife works in special education and was pleased by the comprehensive picture it presented of the challenges faced both by the kids and their parents, with the latter sometimes finding that their marriages simply can’t survive those challenges.
Myself, I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more of “the musical” in a movie called “Autism: The Musical”. The musical is built up over the course of the movie with frequent title cards that say things like “three weeks before the performance”, “two weeks before the performance”, etc., yet when we get to the actual musical production performed by the autistic kids, it’s just another seven-or-eight-minute vignette among a film comprised of seven-or-eight-minute vignettes. But that’s more of a criticism based on the expectations created by the film’s title, rather than a criticism of the film itself.
“Autism: The Musical” looks and sounds great on DVD, and there are a variety of interesting extra features, mostly involving additional scenes of the kids.
Rating: 4 / 5