Life, Animated: An Autistic Child Develops Speech rough Disney Films

Photo: Courtesy The Orchard/A&E IndieFilms .

The summer season of the KCET Cinema Series continued at Santa Monicas Aero Theatre on June 14 with Life, Animated. The stunning documentary incorporates animation and live action footage to tell the story of the day-to-day life of a young, autistic man named Owen Suskind.

Owens parents discovered an unusual way to communicate with their son when they realized that he could quote Disney movies. Using the classic films and characters, they were able help him speak. Now in his early 20s, the documentary follows Owen as he finishes school, gets his own apartment and enters the adult world. Based on the book Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes and Autism by Owens father, noted journalist Ron Suskind, the film was directed by Academy Award-winning documentarian Roger Ross Williams.

Sponsored by the James and Paula Coburn Foundation and E. Hofert Dailey Trust, the KCET Cinema Series brings audiences pre-release movie screenings and Q&A sessions.

This week, host Pete Hammond was joined by Paul Davidson, executive vice president of The Orchard, who is distributing Life, Animated. A portion of their conversation appears below.

On the recent film acquisitions made by The Orchard

Paul Davidson: The Orchard is an independent film distribution company. Its been in the music business for decades and, in the last couple of years, we really expanded our focus on acquiring films for theatrical distribution. In 2015, Cartel Land, which was nominated for a documentary Oscar, Dior and I, another documentary that came out last year, as well as some of the narratives like The Overnight and we just released, this last Friday, Morgan Neville, his new movie, [The Music of Strangers:] Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, which is in theaters in New York and L.A. and expanding.

Pete Hammond: The Music of Strangers.

PD: The Music of Strangers. We have Taika Waititis new movie called Hunt for the Wilderpeople, coming at the end of June.

PH: Fabulous movie. Ive seen it.

PD: A very fun movie. And then this movie on July 1. And then, as the year goes on, weve picked up Pablo Larra ns new film from Cannes, called Neruda, and Oren Movermans new movie, The Dinner, with Richard Gere and Laura Linney, coming out later this year.

PH: So, youre like a whole little studio here, Paul.

PD: Were an indie studio. Were just not producing. Were just acquiring.

PH: You dont want to get into the producing end of it?

PD: Ill let other people produce. Well pick up finished products.

Image: Courtesy The Orchard/A&E IndieFilms.

On how The Orchard landed Life, Animated

PD: We saw it at Sundance. Typically, every January, thats a big stop for us as a distributor and Roger Ross Williams won the directing award at Sundance for the film he was producing. He won the Oscar for a documentary short years prior, but, yeah, we saw it at Sundance and thats, were talking about the chorus, the game where you see the movie and you sit down with all the great folks involved. You have Julie Goldman, who is part of Motto Pictures, who produced it, along with Amy of IndieFilms and Roger, the director, and the family is there as well. You come into their room, you sit down and you tell them why you love the movie so much and how youre going to support that film, how youre going to get it out so that people can see it. Its kind of a process.

PH: Do you have to tell that to Owen?

PD: Well, Owen, was a part of that process. At midnight, he wasnt sitting there with us, with the family. Ron and Cornelia were there, this is their family. This is their son. They want to make sure that theyre entrusting the film to an extension of their family. Its important to not only pitch them your strategy for the film, but also you have to be cognizant of Owens needs.

Owen has been traveling across the country back and forth with his family to film festivals and it takes a toll on him. Hes used to a certain process and schedule for his life.

We were just talking with his mother today about, as we open the film, something that has helped for him is hes staying somewhere where there is a pool. Between him going out and standing in front of people, he can kind of work off the stress and the energy by having something peaceful like that. Its just that you have to be super cognizant that this is a family with their own lives. Its not just an actor in a movie, who, by the way, also have their own lives, but this is, youre pulling people out of their day-to-day.

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PH: I just saw this [film] again tonight... The first time, for whatever reason, it swam over my head, but his bother is named Walt. What are the odds of that?

PD: We changed his name for the movie. Just kidding. Hes great and its interesting, I feel like Walt has some of the most poignant moments of the film. When he has that moment where he talks about this realization that, with every birthday that goes by, eventually his parents wont be around and hes going to be the person that is going to be there for his brother. I think, no matter what the situation is in any family, theres just something that everybody goes through as time goes on and generations fall by the wayside. You are suddenly responsible for whatever, for your family, for everybody involved.

PH: ...I imagine that there were other people bidding on this kind of film certainly at a festival like that. What was it that you saw that made you think, I can make this work in theaters.

PD: Again, for us, the way we operate is we operate from a place of passion and inspiration first. If were not feeling that, there are a lot of companies, and more power to them, that may approach it from the numbers perspective first, we still, everybody still has to try to make money, this is a business, but are we passionate about it... were involved with this family, this team,

LINK:	https://www.kcet.org/kcet-cinema-series/life-animated-an-autistic-chil...
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