Many others played starring roles too: doctors like Leo Kanner, who pioneered our understanding of autism lawyers like Tom Gilhool, who took the families’ battle for education to the courtroom scientists who sparred over how to treat autism and those with autism, like Temple Grandin, Alex Plank, and Ari Ne’eman, who explained their inner worlds and championed the philosophy of neurodiversity. It is the story of women like Ruth Sullivan, who rebelled against a medical establishment that blamed cold and rejecting “refrigerator mothers” for causing autism and of fathers who pushed scientists to dig harder for treatments.

Unfolding over decades, it is a beautifully rendered history of ordinary people determined to secure a place in the world for those with autism-by liberating children from dank institutions, campaigning for their right to go to school, challenging expert opinion on what it means to have autism, and persuading society to accept those who are different. Beginning with his family’s odyssey, In a Different Key tells the extraordinary story of this often misunderstood condition, and of the civil rights battles waged by the families of those who have it.

Nearly seventy-five years ago, Donald Triplett of Forest, Mississippi, became the first child diagnosed with autism. While illustrating real problems, the film also conveys real solutions, and will help persuade the general audience we are aiming for to recognize why we should all want to have the backs of people who are “different.Finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in General NonfictionĪn extraordinary narrative history of autism: the riveting story of parents fighting for their children ’s civil rights of doctors struggling to define autism of ingenuity, self-advocacy, and profound social change. We’re convinced the film has become more relevant than ever, with its revealing looks at how autism plays out in the criminal justice system, and the legacy of race bias in autism diagnosis. We have more festival runs planned, and we are also in discussion with a number of potential distribution partners, with whom conversations are ongoing. The latest fantastic news: in March, we won the Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Oxford Film Festival, and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Sonoma International Film Festival. Well, we did it! The film so many of you (nearly 200!) have supported with love and funding is complete! The final result is 98 minutes long, and a piece of work we can all be proud of.

In a Different Key by John Donvan