First Annual San Francisco Bay Area Autism Film Festival will be
held Friday-Sunday, March 28-30. The films will be showing on Friday
evening, Saturday evening, and Sunday afternoon.

Sponsored by:

• Autism Tissue Program

• San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, Autism Society of America

• Autism/PDD Support Group, Parents Helping Parents

• Palo Alto Unified Special Education Department/ CAC

• Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital/Stanford University

• Peninsula Parents of Special Needs Kids

• Friends of Children with Special Needs

• Palo Alto PTA Council

This unique film festival is part of Brain Awareness Week (BAW), a
series of events held around the world in collaboration with the
Society for Neuroscience to increase public awareness about the brain
and the importance of basic neuroscience research.

Free materials on autism and the brain will be available in the theatre lobby.

3/28/08 Friday evening

• 6-7PM Film Festival Opening Night Reception, hosted by the Palo Alto PTA Council. Everyone welcome!

• 7PM The Third Parent Award-winning short documentary. This award
  winning short documentary is an honest, impassioned and touching look
  at familial love and duty from the rare perspective of a ll year old
  sibling. The relationship between the 11-year-old girl and her autistic
  five-year old brother and the impact a disabled child has on family
  dynamics and an emerging adolescent are presented. 6 minutes

• 7:10 PM Her Name Is Sabine (Elle s’appelle Sabine) In French with
  English subtitles. Recent winner at the Cannes Film Festival. This
  movie is a beautiful and moving portrait of Sabine, a 38 year old woman
  with autism, filmed by her sister, the internationally famous French
  actress Sandrine Bonnaire , Through personal footage filmed over a
  period of 25 years, it is revealed that Sabine's growth and many
  talents were crushed by improper diagnosis and an inadequate care
  structure. This sensitive documentary and recent winner at the Cannes
  Film Festival shows the dramatic consequences, not only of improper
  diagnosis and inadequate care structure, but the need for specialized
  alternatives to institutionalization. 85 minutes.

3/29/08 Saturday evening

• 7 PM Autism, The Musical 2007 Documentary Feature Oscar Short List.
  "Autism: The Musical" is an upbeat and moving documentary about putting
  on a musical for, with and by autistic children. It centers on a group
  of five autistic children who are given the chance to explore their
  creativity by putting on a musical under the instruction of a pro
  acting coach. Eloquently attesting to the transformative power of
  theater, "Autism: The Musical," proves “as riveting as it is
  revelatory”, according to Variety . 93 minutes

• 8:45 Today’s Man. Extraordinary young man with Asperger’s. Nicky
  Gottlieb was a child of extraordinary talents and odd behavior. At age
  21, he was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, a high functioning form of
  autism. TODAY'S MAN follows Nicky over the course of six years as he
  struggles to leave the safety of his family's home and find his own
  place in the world. Lizzy Gottlieb, Nicky’s sister who filmed him
  states, “ When you meet Nicky, you might find him offensive and rude,
  or charming and quirky, or brilliant and adorable, or aggressively
  intrusive. It is my hope that this film could explain Nicky and those
  like him to people who might otherwise write him off, take offence or
  become angered by him.” 90 minutes.

3/30/08 Sunday Afternoon

• 2PM Refrigerator Mothers. Best Documentary, Sedona Intl. Film
  Festival. From the 1950’s through the early 1970’s the American medical
  establishment thought it knew the cause of autism: poor mothering.
  Doctors presumed that the bizarre behaviors , rigid rituals, difficulty
  with speech and extreme self-isolation stemmed from their mothers’
  emotional frigidity. We now know that autism is a neurological
  disorder. Winner of the Best Documentary at the Sedona International
  Film Festival, this film explores the psychological toll on the mothers
  of autistic children and their fight to overcome the shame of this
  diagnosis. 53 minutes.

• 3:15 Autism, The Musical 2007 Documentary Feature Oscar Short List. 93 minutes.

There is more information available at the ASA website. Link below.