Autism: The Musical (2007)
In Effect Films

Description

Autism: The Musical follows the extraordinary and innovative acting coach Elaine Hall, five autistic children, and their parents as they improbably, heroically mount a full-length original stage production. Through trial and error, tears and laughter, these incredible families learn to communicate their feelings in song and performance, finding solace and joy in the act of creating.

Tags

Autim, Children, Musical

Collected reviews and ratings

10 documentaryfilms.net | Phillip A. Pell

On the surface it would be easy to write off this film as bland, predictable pablum, obvious and hackneyed; A cliche. But that’s just a red herring and if you can look past that veneer you’re in for a real drop-kick of self-realization.
Read full review (Cinema)

10 Amazon user reviews

The children in the film are wonderful and the adults cover the whole range of what people can be. If this doesn't deeply touch and affect you, then there is something quite wrong. It's a valuable and important film for everyone to see and I applaud its production.
Read full review (DVD)

9.5 DVD Verdict | David Johnson

Films like Autism: The Musical will help shed light on autism and its effects on everyone the disorder touches. Less about the actual musical production and more about the people affiliated with it, the documentary offers a stark and brutally honest perspective from the people affected most by autism.
Read full review (DVD)

9.0 Variety | Ronnie Scheib

Eloquently attesting to the transformative power of theater, "Autism: The Musical," an upbeat docu about putting on a musical for, with and by autistic children, proves as riveting as it is revelatory.
Read full review (Cinema)

7.0 DVD Talk | Francis Rizzo III

Inspiring? Depends on your expectations. Interesting? Certainly. Heartbreaking? Without a doubt. For fans of human interest stories and tales of the human condition, this is like catnip.
Read full review (DVD)

6.0 PopMatters.com | Amaya Rivera

The documentary is about much more than the theatrical process, however, as it lets us into the personal stories of the children and perhaps more poignantly, those of their parents.
Read full review (Cinema)