Life, Animated
classified PGPlease note: This was screened in Dec 2016
This remarkable documentary tells the story of how an autistic boy learned to communicate through Disney films.
As a child, Owen Suskind stopped speaking and was diagnosed as having Autism Spectrum Disorder, but his love for Disney films led his family to develop and extraordinary way of communicating with him. Against medical advice, they helped him find his voice through mimicking and channelling Disney characters: by using Simba, Jafar, Ariel et al Owen found a way of cataloguing his emotions and interpreting reality. Meanwhile, the original animation sequences give form to Owen's interior world as he deals with the challenges of growing up.
A moving coming-of-age tale, Life, Animated offers a powerful insight into both the experience of autism and the transformative possibilities of cinema.