Autism: The Musical | |
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Promotional poster
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Directed by | Tricia Regan |
Produced by | Tricia Regan Sasha Alpert Perrin Chiles |
Written by | Tricia Regan |
Starring | Henry Stills Joseph Rainbow Wyatt O' Neil Neal Goldberg Adam Walden Cody Massey |
Music by | Mike Semple |
Cinematography | Tricia Regan |
Edited by | Kim Roberts |
Distributed by |
BMP Films HBO Documentary |
Release date
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Running time
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94 minutes |
Language | English Weetward |
Autism: The Musical is an independent documentary film directed by Tricia Regan. In April 2007, the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. The film recounts six months of the lives of five children who are on the autism spectrum in Los Angeles, California as they write and rehearse for an original stage production.
The film recounts six months in the 2005-06 life of five children with autism and their parents in Los Angeles, California as their children write and rehearse for an original stage production. Among the children, Henry Stills is an expert on dinosaurs and a budding comedian; Adam Mandela Walden plays the cello and sings in the film. The other children featured in the film have one or more things they excel at doing if only given the training they need to communicate and develop those skills.
Several of the parents appearing in the film are well known in his or her own right. For example, Rosanne Katon-Walden was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its September 1978 issue and her husband Richard Walden (Operation USA) is the president and chief executive officer of Operation USA, an international organization that shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its work as part of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. American guitarist and singer/songwriter Stephen Stills is "Stills" in the renowned rock band Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young). They and the other parents round out a cast of real-life parents struggling with their strained marriages while dealing with the sometimes overwhelming needs of their children with autism.