A good Autism movie to show high school students

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aspieclass09
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15 Apr 2009, 7:04 am

Hi, I'm in need of some guidance. I work with kids on the spectrum and we are hosting "Autism Awareness Month" at a local high school. We're showing two movies based on ASD, one being "Mozart and the Whale."

Can someone tell me what would be another good movie to show high school kids? I don't want to portray autism as being low functioning(since most high schoolers are fabulous at creating stereotypes). Any suggestions? Thanks alot!

~Jamie & the Aspie Class :D



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15 Apr 2009, 8:20 am

Snow Cake is quite good. Sigourney Weaver plays a woman with HFA. I think it's shows a very balanced view of how adults deal with autism (both those who have it & those around them.)


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15 Apr 2009, 12:56 pm

I thought snow cake was a rather horrible film. It had no plot line, and random sex (presumably because they ran out of plot idea after 2 minutes and needed to fill the time). It really was just a pointless movie that happened to have an autistic person in it.



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15 Apr 2009, 12:57 pm

Try Rain Man, it won best picture if I can remember.



anna-banana
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15 Apr 2009, 1:00 pm

I quite liked Paradox Lake, it was quirky and misterious and I loved the way it portrayed different types of autism as well as alternative ways to communicate. I hated the ending though, it sucked.

it might be a bit too artsy-fartsy for high school kids, but it's a good film (and with genuine autistic kids as themselves).


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15 Apr 2009, 1:44 pm

why not challenge them by portraying the spectrum? autism is more than as/hfa-some of us are LFA and are neither represented by typical LFA shows/programmes because they focus on the profound end-not LFA overall.

No idea on films but can think of a documentary that is a good one for helping to understand the spectrum and its not one of those that promotes autists as burdens,its by the jackson family [from UK,luke,ben,Joe etc] - http://www.jacquijackson.com/television/


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16 Apr 2009, 5:06 am

I sometimes think - in darker moments! - that the best movie to show how the world looks to the autistic is Mike Judge's superb Idiocracy. But I suppose that's too snarky for an NT audience.



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16 Apr 2009, 6:32 am

KingdomOfRats wrote:
why not challenge them by portraying the spectrum? autism is more than as/hfa-some of us are LFA and are neither represented by typical LFA shows/programmes because they focus on the profound end-not LFA overall.



Hey good idea I like that


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16 Apr 2009, 8:56 am

Mozart and the Whale is outstanding and has been shown at many autism conferences. It's about a couple who both have Asperger's Syndrome.


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16 Apr 2009, 12:43 pm

Being from Belgium, I would recommend BenX which is a hard emotional movie, but the videogames element makes it cool for the younger people.



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29 Dec 2010, 6:29 pm

DeepBlueLake wrote:
I sometimes think - in darker moments! - that the best movie to show how the world looks to the autistic is Mike Judge's superb Idiocracy. But I suppose that's too snarky for an NT audience.


Well spotted :) I think you are right.



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29 Dec 2010, 6:55 pm

Edward Scissorhands. Tim Burton is suspected of having AS and this is kind of an allegory.

Amadeus. Well if people say Mozart had AS then this is about someone on the spectrum. Ok, Im kidding here.

I just watched "If you could say it in words." It's a bit uneventful and might not keep peoples interest to watch beginning to end. It shows someone with undiagnosed Aspergers interacting socially. It would lend itself to selecting specific scenes.

Miracle on 34th Street. Well if Santa is autistic. Ok, just kidding here too.



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29 Dec 2010, 7:39 pm

Adam would be a great movie to show. It shows how someone can be hyperfocussed on their special interest, yet still be able to live independently and be in an intimate relationship. Of course I'm saying this, because I can relate to the main character.


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vetwithAS
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29 Dec 2010, 7:45 pm

While I've never seen the movie and therefore can't really gauge it's appropriateness, I've heard that the main character in Napoleon Dynamite has AS.



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29 Dec 2010, 9:57 pm

Homer_Bob wrote:
Try Rain Man, it won best picture if I can remember.


Lots of films win academy awards (or get nominated) for basically the really old "let's have a nondisabled actor portray a disabled character (as a condition, of course, not as a person)". Doesn't make them good movies.


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29 Dec 2010, 9:59 pm

anna-banana wrote:
I quite liked Paradox Lake, it was quirky and misterious and I loved the way it portrayed different types of autism as well as alternative ways to communicate. I hated the ending though, it sucked.

it might be a bit too artsy-fartsy for high school kids, but it's a good film (and with genuine autistic kids as themselves).


How did you ever get hold of Paradox Lake? I could never find it.


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