LIFE ANIMATED, Feature Film
2015 USA / Duration: 91 mins / Directed by: Roger Ross Williams
Director Roger Ross Williams has brought Mountainfilm audiences a pair of memorable movies: Music by Prudence and God Loves Uganda. Now, he returns with another incredible documentary, this one about a boy named Owen Suskind whose autism made it impossible for him to communicate when he was young. When he became upset, which happened frequently, the best avenue to calm Owen was to let him watch animated Disney films. One day, Owen’s father, the renowned political writer Ron Suskind, went into his 8-year-old son’s room and grabbed a puppet of Iago, the parrot in Aladdin. Doing his best impression of the Gilbert Gottfried-voiced character, the father asked his son, “Owen, how does it feel to be you?” And Owen answered, providing the first conversation the two ever had. The film takes it from there, showing how story, imagination and the magic of movies can forge a family.
Opening Short Films
Pink Boy
2015 USA / Duration: 15 mins / Directed by: Eric Rockey
Jeffrey, age 6, loves wigs and purses, princess gowns, making up dances, wearing high heels and the color pink. He always has. His great aunt, who adopted Jeffrey as a baby after he was taken from his birth mother, has had to learn to balance his tastes with the harshness of a world that can be intolerant. Pink Boy, a short film by Eric Rockey, is a story of the unconditional love of family and parents who recognize the importance of creating a safe space for their son to live out his truth.
Throw
2016 USA / Duration: 10 mins / Directed by: Darren Durlach, Dave Larson
Growing up in East Baltimore surrounded by poverty and violence is hard enough, and Coffin Nachtmahr had the added challenge of being different. He stutters. He never quite fit in, and he was picked on. Then he discovered a lifeline in the unlikeliest of pursuits: yo-yoing.
Guest Speakers
Coffin Nachtmahr
