Thank you for taking the time for doing this story I hope that it
educates all of the people who look at Billy or people that are
different to realize that we all have something to offer and take
the time to listen. I hope I didn't offend anyone when using the
"retarded" word but when I was in School that is what people used
when referring to slow learners and it was only after 1972 when the
Schools systems used the word main streaming and us to be classified
as mentally challenged. There is a Great line in the Movie of " House
of Deeds" that Robin Williams plays that it explains it all to well
of being different .If you haven't seen it .it is a must see movie
for you .Most people when they hear all my stories always say you
should write a book ,Right my minds runs at 200%but it doesn't
connect to my hands so it is always a mess and I never will but I
can tell a story.!!!The movie made me look at myself and about all
the hurt that I put in a distant place in my mind to forgot all those
terrible people that said that i would never be able to do anything
in life except take up space and push pencils on a street corner and
of course all the time looking for order in my life ,friends and
placement of things all in which once they are out of order make
you very angry-- Really angry because in your mind that is what we
are trying to do make sense out of it all.So Yes I loved the Movie
and I too love your eyes.
--WILLIAM
Thank you so much for the great experience that I had the other night. You really did a great job. My son has dyslexia and I was wondering what I would learn from your film. I kept wondering what was Billy's disability however, once the movie began I did not think of it again. It didn't matter. When I heard you speak after, you mentioned that you wanted to present the movie in a way that it did not matter because of labels. Well, it worked. So many children are diagnosed with disabilities and as a parent with a child who has been recently diagnosed with one I was very interested as soon as I saw the information in the paper. I came out with a lot more than I expected and I thank you for that. You did a great job and Billy is a wonderful actor to be able to present himself. It never seemed as if he was acting. It seemed at all times he was being himself. He is an actor and to see him in a movie at 15 years old shows what he is capable of doing. He may be diagnosed with a disability but, he has already done more than the average 15 year old has done. That is what life is about isn't it, making the best of what we are given.
I have been thinking about this movie a lot. It was as an adult as after school special's were to me back 25 yrs ago as a kid.
I do believe that every middle school and high school should show this movie. It is a very important message for both teens and adults.
My friend was going to e-mail you however, since I'm not sure if she has I will mention it. The karate classes that Billy goes to in Brunswick are known to be more extreme. The Riverview Foundation in Topsham may be another place for him to look into and it has a very different approach to karate. I believe that it gets funds from the state. It may be something his mother may find worth pursuing.
Thank you again,
--KAREN
3 comments:
Jeff said...
Chiemi and Jen:
I did see the whole movie last night but had to run out right when the
questions started because I was already 45 minutes late for the last
rehearsal before our choral concert this week....
I thought the film was really very good. And so did the 12 or so
students from my film class who showed up (along with quite a few other
Mt. Ararat kids), and so did the various teachers I talked about it with
as the day went on in school today. It made really a nice human
respectful portrait of Billy, so that I felt I got to know him and his
mom and his life pretty well. Didn't seem to have much of an agenda,
wasn't trying to "educate" me, just to show me in a rather intimate way
the life of an unusual personality. After some thought, I was kind of
sad to have those titles at the end, which finally put a name to Billy's
condition, because there is something refreshing about the way the film
didn't label anything, or try to explain anything in terms of illness or
disability, or try to educate me that "This is what Asbergers looks
like" or anything like that, and seemed to say that Billy's diagnosis
was Billy-ness, just the total condition of him being who he is.
Not that diagnosis isn't useful (my film kids reported that Billy
himself spoke about not liking to have a name put to his problem)...
because I think it extremely useful to know you're not alone and that
other people have experiences similar to yours...
Anyway, so many priceless moments in the film: you couldn't have paid
for that groups of men clapping when he had his first kiss (unless you
did pay for them) or really for so many of the thoughtful, out there
things that Billy said about himself and his world. There was lots of
occasional laughter in the audience, about particularly cute or odd
things Billy said or did, and I wondered as I laughed whether it was
condescending laughter. But I decided that it wasn't, that the film was
so totally respectful of him and his family and who they were. And how
nice that was.
And thanks for showing it here first. It was a treat for the community.
Good luck with it.
--JEFF, FILM TEACHER
March 21, 2007 1:40 PM
Andrea said...
Jennifer,
I felt the film you created on Billy was done very well. It was both beautiful in its ability to capture the struggles a teenager such as Billy goes through; as well as, poetic in its delivery of these struggles and longings. It was not exploitive nor was it demeaning in any way. Futhermore, the film transcends not just teenage concerns like Billy's but all teenagers and real life teenage issues - abusive family histories, drugs and first loves. I enjoyed the film. I laughed and I cried. Thank you for giving Billy a real concrete fixture of success.
I wish you and your crew the greatest of production and creative success.
March 21, 2007 2:08 PM
We have to inquire about if we're really coping with feel-good laws proposed much more for that politics acquire associated with particular chosen officials or even significant laws that will supply funded sources to serve documented as well as confirmed unmet needs. It is especially unusual that some elected authorities tend to be suggesting unfunded anti-bullying laws at a time when college security funds in order to implement such programs, along with other college safety initiatives that don't relate to bullying, are being cut.
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