The new movie Ezra shows that when autistic people are creatively involved in telling autistic stories, it strengthens not only representation, but the very quality of a film itself.
Tag: acting
“I hope that if non-autistic parents reading take one thing from this book, it’s that supporting an autistic child in their genuine, passionate interests, no matter how seemingly strange or unlikely, is perhaps one of the most important decisions they can make for that child’s future.”
As an autistic person, I decided to watch “As We See It” to see how autistic people are represented. After watching the whole season, I concluded that “As We See It” should be called “As Non-autistic Caregivers See It.”
Fox TV’s new Kiefer Sutherland series Touch premieres in two days, on Wednesday January 25th. We’re intrigued, and watchful. The series revolves around a non-verbal child, Jake, who understands numerical patterns other people can’t perceive — and his father Martin’s attempts to understand not only what Jake is trying to communicate, but Jake himself. From the series description at Fox.com: Blending science, spirituality and emotion, the series will follow seemingly unrelated people all over the world whose lives affect each other in ways seen and unseen, known and unknown. At the story’s center is MARTIN BOHM (Kiefer Sutherland), a widower and single father, haunted by an inability to connect to his emotionally challenged 11-year-old son, JAKE (David Mazouz). Caring, intelligent and thoughtful, Martin has tried everything to reach his son. But Jake never speaks, shows little emotion, and never allows himself to be touched by anyone, including Martin. Jake is…
Jean Winegardner www.stimeyland.com Ryan Cartwright as Gary Bell of “Alphas” I am always interested to see how television shows use autistic characters. Thanks to a column I wrote for Autism Unexpected, I was able to conduct an email interview with Ryan Cartwright, the actor who plays autistic character Gary Bell on Syfy’s show “Alphas.” Ryan had some great answers to the questions I had about creating an autistic character for television. He was interested in seeing his full answers published, and I agreed. (Don’t forget to read my full story about the show as well: “He’s not autistic, but he plays one on TV.”) Check out what Ryan had to say, and be sure to let me know if you’ve watched “Alphas” and, if you have, what you think of it and its portrayal of autism. Jean: How did you approach playing an autistic character differently than the other roles…