About the film:
Directed by Academy Award-winning documentarian Roger Ross Williams, Life, Animated is the story of Owen Suskind, the son of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind and his wife, Cornelia. An autistic boy who couldn’t speak for years, Owen memorized dozens of Disney movies and turned them into a language to express love and loss, kinship, and brotherhood. In order to foster communication, the family creatively "became" animated characters, communicating with him in Disney dialogue and song; until they all emerge, together, revealing how, in darkness, we all literally need stories to survive.
- 89 m. Roger Ross Williams. Roco Films. USA/France.
English with subtitles.
Rated PG
"Blending interviews and verité footage with bountiful Disney clips and animated sequences produced by the independent studio Mac Guff, Life, Animated dips in and out of real life and Owen’s fantasies, representing its subject’s delicate world in much the same way that he experiences it." Eric Kohn, IndieWire
"It’s [a] combination of despair and joy, victories and defeats that make Life, Animated such a compelling rendering of life with autism. Owen has to cope with the same life challenges as anyone else: moving out of home, breaking up with a girlfriend, having a job interview. And Williams doesn’t patronize or sentimentalize his world." Lanre Bakare, The Guardian
Panel:
Robert Valli
Cory Levine
Sandra Alvarez
Moderated by:
Brooke Mellett, Regional Program Director TNC
Bios of panel coming soon!
