/21 min. / Documentary
/2004 / USA
captioned version
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Looking back on his years of living in a closed institution for people labeled mentally retarded, Vermont-based autistic artist Larry Bissonnette assesses this form of "apartheid" as "better for growing vegetables rather than people." This documentary is filled with Bissonnette's humorous yet poignant assessments of his life -- growing
up, his family, and creating art. Moving back and forth between speech, typing, and painting, Bissonnette's wit and insight punctuate a day in the life of this Outsider artist, and artfully illustrate the complexities of expression.

Doug Biklen - director

Doug Biklen first became involved in film as director of print media for the six part television series Feeling Free that appeared on PBS in the Zoom television slot in 1978. Then in the late 1980s he was executive producer of an award-winning documentary, Regular Lives, that aired nationally on PBS. In the 1990s he was Educational Advisor to the Academy Award winning, HBO documentary Educating Peter (1992) and then later for its sequel Graduating Peter (2003). He was executive producer and producer of a short documentary entitled Inside the Edge (2002). He is co-producer of the Academy Award nominated Autism is a World (2004), a co-production of CNN Presents and State of the Art Inc. Autism is A World is based in part on a chapter in his forthcoming book Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone (in press, NYU Press). My Classic Life as an Artist: A Portrait of Larry Bissonnette (2005) is the first film that he both produced and directed (with Rossetti).

The Syracuse University's Facilitated Communication I