A documentary on BBC2’s “Wonderland” series, follows Emma Bishop and Ben Marshall, two young adults in England who have been together for six years and are very much in love. Both have Down syndrome.

They want to wed, but face complications from their parents and from the benefits system. “The thing with having Down syndrome is that sometimes you’re not treated like an adult,” explained Emma. “And people don’t listen to what you say.”

In the [UK] Independent, reviewer Alice-Azania Jarvis says the work is “a moving, striking and insightful film…, not to mention one, which, hopefully will work towards changing the attitudes Emma mentioned.”

Lucy Mangan, writing in the [UK] Guardian, called the documentary a “slight film” that fails to consider the broader context of “the difficulties of reconciling adult human rights with childlike vulnerabilities.” Still, she says, the film was valuable for providing “a nuanced portrait of two people leading the kind of lives rarely seen at length on the screen.”

On theAtlantic.com, journalist and filmmaker Jody Becker questions current research that has found a rising incidence of autism among American children. Becker says government eligibility standards for services may be driving the increase in diagnoses, as doctors are forced to misdiagnose kids in order to get publicly funded help for them.

“Every day, precious time and money is wasted as kids who don’t belong in the autism world get pushed into it,” she says. “Finally, parents are pushing back.”

Becker is the producer of Autistic-Like: Graham’s Story, a documentary about a California family whose son son was given a provisional diagnosis of autism and a prescription for Applied Behavioral Analysis — even though he had Sensory Processing Disorder, a milder syndrome that’s not on the autism spectrum. The family’s pediatrician told them to keep the inaccurate autism label so the state would pay for treatment.

From the Associated Press:

Of the first 36 U.S. children to die of the swine flu since it was identified in April, almost two-thirds had epilepsy, cerebral palsy or other neurodevelopmental conditions, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a previous flu season, only a third of the children who died of the flu had comparable underlying conditions.

See also:

Ed. Dept. Gives Guidance on Providing Special Education During a Swine Flu Outbreak — Education Week blog

From New York Times, Associated Press/Greensboro [NC] News & Record, Charlotte Observer, Winston-Salem Journal, Shelby [NC] Star:

Martha Mason, author of the memoir “Breath,” died in her North Carolina home last week shortly before her 72nd birthday. Mason had lived more than 60 years in an iron lung after a childhood bout with polio left her paralyzed from the neck down.

Mason was one of the last handful of Americans to live full-time in an iron lung. An official from the March of Dimes said there was no documented case of any American who had done so for quite so long.

From her horizontal world — a 7-foot-long, 800-pound iron cylinder that encased all but her head — Ms. Mason lived a life that was by her own account fine and full, reading voraciously, graduating with highest honors from high school and college, entertaining and eventually writing.

She chose to remain in an iron lung, she often said, for the freedom it gave her. It let her breathe without tubes in her throat, incisions or hospital stays, as newer, smaller ventilators might require. It took no professional training to operate, letting her remain mistress of her own house, with just two aides assisting her.

Mary Dalton, an associate communications professor at Wake Forest University, produced a documentary about Mason’s life in 2005. “She always wanted people to see she was a person, separate from the iron lung,” she said. “Once you got engaged in a conversation with her, you forgot about the iron lung. … She was really funny, she was really smart … She never wanted to be pitied.”

(Photo from the Charlotte Observer)

From The Hill:

California First Lady Maria Shriver is advocating for Alzheimer’s education and research this week in Washington, and also promoting the HBO film series she produced, “The Alzheimer’s Project.”

She spoke at a breakfast meeting of having to reintroduce herself to her father, R. Sargent Shriver, who was diagnosed with the condition in 2003. He no longer recognizes his daughter.

Sargent Shriver was a special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson, and served as the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee in 1972.

“I don’t mind having to reintroduce myself — at least I still have my dad,” Maria Shriver said at the breakfast.

… “The emotional, spiritual and financial cost of this disease is mind boggling to the nation.”

See also:

• Alzheimer’s costs triple that of other elderly — AP/Washington Post
• Why I got my DNA tested for Alzheimer’s — Terry Moran, ABC News
• 10 things you should know about Alzheimer’s — US News & World Report
• Alzheimer’s cases growing; Problem worsens as population ages — Chicago Sun-Times

From BBC, UK Times, People Magazine, Hindustan Times:

The story of an Indian girl whose cleft lip was repaired through surgery has won the Academy Award for best short documentary.

Directed by Megan Mylan, the film follows Pinki’s transformation from an introverted social outcast to an outgoing local celebrity after an operation funded by The Smile Train, an international charity organization that provides free surgery to children with cleft lips and palates.

Pinki, who attended the awards ceremony with her father and her surgeon, told People magazine that she had been shunned by children and townspeople in her rural village in India. Pinki’s birth had been a humiliation on her family, and villagers said her cleft lip was evidence of a curse.

Her father, Rajendra Sonkar, said he used to think it would have been better if his daughter had not been born. Now he hopes Pinki will grow up to be a flight attendant.

(Pinki with surgeon Subodh Kumar Singh, her father, and director Megan Mylan, AP photo from UK Times)

The documentary film, about a couple’s efforts to cure their son of autism with the help of Mongolian shamans, is screening at the Sundance film festival.

From Variety:

[The film] has the nerve to be spiritual without entering the minefield of faith, and through careful handling, could resonate strongly with underserved [audiences] … What we’re left with isn’t whether or not shamanism cures autism but a more allegorical example of what happens when people seek solutions beyond the boundaries of Western thought.

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

“Over the Hills and Far Away” is a heartbreaking and uplifting documentary … Director Michel Orion Scott explores the contradictory scientific expertise on autism. But the most moving scenes come as Scott follows the family on their quest, chronicling a family coming together in crisis in a story too strange and miraculous to be fiction.

Earlier post here.