Irish Film Institute -LIFE, ANIMATED

LIFE, ANIMATED

Director: Roger Ross Williams

89 mins, 2016, USA, Digital


This film was released 9th December 2016, and is no longer screening.

★★★★★ Irish Times

★★★★★ Guardian

A profoundly autistic boy learns to communicate through reciting memorised dialogue from Disney films in Roger Ross Williams’ inspirational case history.

By the age of three, Owen Suskind had withdrawn completely; no longer able to talk, with sleep and motor functions severely disrupted, his parents Ron and Cornelia were facing a future where Owen would be entirely dependent on others. Hope arrived in the most unlikely form when at age five, he began to speak by way of quoting his beloved Disney characters, especially the playful sidekicks whose uncomplicated and clearly expressed feelings gave Owen a means to convey his own.

The film charts Owen’s transition in his early twenties towards independent living, navigating his way through domesticity, young love and responsibilities of employment under the watchful eyes of his  equally remarkable parents. (Notes by David O’Mahony.)

Don’t forget we now schedule weekly.

Book Tickets

}