What happens to children with serious disabilities when they reach adulthood? They disappear, at least as far as most of society is concerned. “Best and Most Beautiful Things” is a remarkably forthright documentary about a young woman in Maine, Michelle Smith, who rebels at the idea of becoming invisible and wants desperately to find a place in the grown-up world and to find herself in the process. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/movies/best-and-most-beautiful-things-review.html?_r=0 Ms. Smith is legally blind (she can see only extremely close-up images) and has Asperger’s syndrome. The filmmaker, Garrett Zevgetis, followed her over several years but focuses on the pivotal time when she is entering her 20s. It’s a difficult transition for someone with disabilities — the end of the schooling years, with their structure and relative safety
“It’s almost like being on the escalator and coming up and being shot out, and all of a sudden you have to catch your bearings, because now you’re on your own,” explains one of Ms. Smith’s former teachers at the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts. Ms. Smith is eager for experiences and opportunities — “I’m ready for the uncensored world,” she says — but of course the world is less than accommodating. Tensions within her family add to the complications. If this were a Lifetime movie, it would end with Ms. Smith securing a job as a grocery bagger and viewers coming away feeling that all is fine. It is decidedly not a Lifetime movie. Ms. Smith’s growth includes sexual exploration in the world of fetishism, where she finds a sense of identity that had eluded her, and it includes a lot of disappointment as well. Ms. Smith does not fit easily into any box, and neither does this thought-provoking film Director Garrett Zevgetis Rating Not Rated Running Time 1h 30m Genre Documentary -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
