Hi, My names Cheryl. I'm on the facebook page. I'm trying to do a documentary on autism & thought I'd introduce myself & it here with you all in hopes that some of you might be interested in participating.

The following is a description of what the Albuquerque Autism Project is from an interview with The Alibi (a local newspaper~ not yet published) 

"The Albuquerque Autism Project is a documentary in pre-production. It is being produced by people with autism. This includes lighting, camera, photography, audio, editing, & the producer. The actual interviews will have innovative styles that are friendlier to people with autism than the usual documentary-interrogation style & we hope to incorporate experimental audio & visuals in an attempt to show non-autistic people how autistics perceive the world. 

The documentary will basically discuss the human rights of people with autism spectrum disorders. As the incidency rates rise (now at 1:100!) there is whole community of "disabled" people whose voices are not being heard. Even in NM there are no autistics on the board of the NM Autism Society. Albuquerque Public Schools has a special autism program but when they had an autistic teacher for it, they ran all over his rights, did not listen to any of his suggestions and eventually caused him to have a break down (he is one of our interviewees).

Everywhere we look we can see ads by media giants/"non profits" like Autism Speaks who claim to have our best interests at heart while they demonize our "condition" and undermine our huge achievements. They say we will never marry, form lasting bonds, have employment OR friends, be functioning, contributing members of society. We think this is obscene & hope to use our documentary to show society as a whole but specifically parents & carers of ASD children & people on the autism spectrum just how amazing we are, in our unique ways, while also discussing important social issues, like employment, education, discrimination, abuse, even things like divorce, because with more autistic being diagnosed daily, HOW do you decide if the autistic parent is able to care for their children? Is it legal to use autism as a marker for choosing? What IS right, wrong, legal, who gets to choose, how & why? These are questions with no single answer because the spectrum varies so widely, they are questions that are simply not part of the national discourse & they NEED to be. 

The secondary goal of this project is an experiment, to see if people on the spectrum can gain new employable skills and use them to find satisfying jobs. We hope for this unnamed side project to become a self sustaining organization where people with all kinds of disabilities (& possibly non-violent youth offenders, who are also stigmatized & lacking in resources, but whom we feel have good traits to teach & learn from their peers with disabilities) can learn skills that turn their disabilities into useful traits that may help them find employment, focusing on the arts & alternative education instead of trying to convince them all to go to college which is not for everyone. (Have a sound sensitivity? Think audio engineer/sound guy!)" 

Anyway, the first half of the AAP will begin filming on June 18. We plan to make a 30 minute short using autistics & resources from albuquerque & film locally because of economic constraints (We havent got any $) but our hope is to gain funding with the short. We have the support of film industry professionals who will help push this project into the festivals it needs to be in to gain visibility & funding. 

Meanwhile, I need to ask you all for help: 

This Saturday we will start recording audio for our first PSA (it will be a sort of satire of autism speaks "I am Autism" obscenity) & we need videos of happy, proud, etc type moments of auties (you can email these to me at cheryls.copy@gmail.com) & audio files of people saying "I am autism" (you can use assistive technology to speak for you if you want, or friends or family members to represent you). We will include the names of people who donate these clips in the credits of the documentary. 

We also would appreciate any economic assistance you are willing to give. If you donate through our kickstarter page you can rest assured that your credit/debit card will only be charged if enough people pledge to get to our minimum. In exchange, if you donate above a certain amount you will receive prizes/rewards, ranging from copies of the end product DVDs to original art by autistic artist Broken Toyland. If you would like to support us & help this project happen by donating, you can do so at: http://kck.st/bvs46f 

If you're in the Albuquerque New Mexico area you are invited to come to our fundraiser/art auction at Warehouse 508 on May 19th. The address is 508 1st street NW ABQ 87102. 

If you want to find out more about the doc or participate in the process you can check out the facebook page at:  

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=372534049448&ref=share ">Albuquerque Autism Documentary

Anyway, I hope someone is interested in this & please get back to me by EMAIL at: cheryls.copy@gmail.com.  But please do comment on this post & I will get back to you as soon as I can. 

Thanks, 
Cheryl