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The Department of Communication Science and Disorders is proud to sponsor the Second Annual ReelAbilities; NJ Disabilities Film Festival at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ State.

ReelAbilities is the largest festival in the country dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities.

This year presents two films:

• Mary & Max – Tuesday, November 18, 8:15 p.m., , room 1070
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• Lost & Sound – Wednesday, November 19, 8:15 p.m., , room 1070
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Descriptions and links to YouTube trailers are provided below. Refreshments will be provided at both events.

Limited Seating; Sign-up for Tickets

Students, faculty/staff and the local community are welcome to attend the viewings.  Tickets for students, with University NetID, are free.  A donation of $10, at the door, is suggested.

To register for tickets, or call:  973-655-7124.

Both films followed by discussion with special guests.

Mary & Max

Adam Elliot / Australia / 80 minutes / Narrative/

Mary & Max is a claymated feature film from the creators of the Academy Award-winning short animation Harvie Krumpet.  A tale of pen-friendship between two very different people; Mary Dinkle, a chubby lonely eight year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne Australia and Max Horovitz, a 44 year-old obese, Jewish man with Asperger’s Syndrome living in the chaos of New York.

Spanning 20 years and two continents, Mary and Max’s friendship survives much more than the average diet of life’s ups and downs.  Like Harvie Krumpet, Mary & Max is innocent but not naive, as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual difference, trust, copulating dogs, religious difference, agoraphobia and much, much more.  Open Caption.

Post film discussants include:


• Dr.  Gerard Costa, Founding Director of the Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health
• Dr. Alicia A. Broderick, Associate Professor in the Department of Early Childhood, Elementary Education and Literacy Education
• Laura Shapanus, Film Maker, writer, producer, actor, and mother of a beautiful, smart, energetic boy who has Aspergers
• 
Dr. Elaine Gerber, Moderator- Associate Professor,  Department of Anthropology

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Lost & Sound

Lindsey Dryden / UK / English / 76 minutes / Awards: DORF Croatia 2013 Best Film /

One out of seven people will experience hearing loss in their lifetime.  For music critic Nick Coleman, dancer Emily Thornton, and pianist Holly Loach, music and hearing were central to their lives in spirits pre-hearing loss.  Lost & Sound follows these artists after they lost their hearing and as they journeyed deep into sound and silence to re-discover music.

Made by a partially deaf filmmaker after the future of her own hearing was called into doubt, the film weaves its way through a startling world of altered sound.  It combines intimate filming with original animation, a rich musical soundtrack (often manipulated to reveal what deafness actually sounds like), and new insights from the world’s top neuroscientists, to tell the story of the great human love affair with music.  Featuring: New York Times bestseller Dr. David Eagleman, composer Professor Nigel Osborne, Dr. Katie Overy, Prof. David Huron, Dr. Robert Zattore and science writer Philip Ball.  Open Caption.

Post film discussants include:


• Arlene Romoff, author of Hear Again-Back to Life with a Cochlear Implant and Listening Closely: A Journey to Bilateral Hearing
• Nancy M. Williams,  motivational speaker, writer, pianist,  hearing health advocate and Founding Editor of the online magazine, Grand Piano Passion™.

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CART (real-time captioning of discussion) services are being provided for this event courtesy of Division of the Deafness and Hard of Hearing in the NJ Department of Human Services.  Wheelchair Accessible.  Please contact us for all other accommodations two weeks in advances. Refreshments provided by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ’s President’s Commission on Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity and Diversity.

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