Autistic Students Connect Through ‘Heart of Tango’

Through the Heart of Tango, the captivating film that has been nominated for Best Documentary Short at the 2013 New York City International Film Festival, is holding a premiere screening this week and today we have clips from the movie.

Inclusion Films’ poignant new documentary follows four young men (three with autism and one with Down’s Syndrome) that were paired with four additional strangers to learn the art of connection by practicing tango with strangers.

Read full article and watch the video click here.

http://mms.tveyes.com/PlaybackPortal.aspx?SavedEditID=865dc1ec-8854-437d-903b-34b3dc69a8a4

Acting Up
Travolta’s summer camp brings out best in autistic youngsters
By Jena passut, Of The Oakland Press
Web-posted Aug 17, 2006

Summer campers buzz around the open space at Oakland University, their energy palpable as they chat with their parents or peers about the possibilities ahead. For these two weeks, they are transformed into actors, writers, lighting technicians and set designers. It doesn’t matter that many of them have autism spectrum disorder, a developmental disability that affects the way they communicate and interact with others. They have been elevated above limits that might have been set for them. They are working with a Hollywood star, and the end result will be a red carpet movie premiere and a chance to be seen on a big screen. “They all have gifts and strengths and it’s just a matter of finding them,” says Joey Travolta, the filmmaker who brought his camp from California to Michigan for the first time. “They’re given a voice.” Travolta, 55, a longtime filmmaker and older brother to megastar John, has his own digital fi lm and acting workshop in Los Angeles, The Entertainment Experience, that helps train aspiring filmmakers. Since he used to teach special education in New Jersey, where he grew up, creating a camp for kids with autism seemed like a natural progression.

Get the show on the road
Now, for the first time, Travolta has brought his film crew to OU’s Film Camp, hosted by Jack’s Place for Autism, which had received a grant for theater, music and art programming from the Jack’s Place Foundation. “Right now, the majority of our programs are in sports,” says director Jessica Watson, who began to research other creative outlets for the kids. She says she heard about families with autistic children here raising money to send their kids to camp in California. “Why not just have our own camp here?” she wondered.

Seeking advice, she called Travolta’s office and to her surprise his husky voice greeted her on the other line. “I ended up talking to him for two hours,” Watson says. “He said, You know what? I’ve always thought about taking this camp on the road.’ ” Travolta traveled to Rochester Hills in January to check out the OU campus and was impressed, Watson says. He called back when he got to California to confirm setting up the camp. Midway through the camp, the 45 children – 30 with autism and 15 peers – have been learning every aspect of filmmaking. The result will be a 20-minute film that will have a red carpet premiere and VIP reception. The short film will be a parody of Donald’s Trump’s NBC show “The Apprentice,” complete with commercials. “Everyone gets on screen and everyone is a part of the process,” Travolta says. “It’s like anybody. When they have a goal and outcome, it works. We have to come up with concepts that can include (all of the) kids.” Travolta oversees all aspects of the production. He says filmmaking is a perfect fit for kids with autism, who often feel like outsiders at school. “Acting is a very inclusive community,” he explains. “If you’re a little different or quirky, it works.”

Making a difference
Watson says she is thrilled with how things are turning out and hopes the camp becomes a yearly event. “Watching some of our kids grow and find an area that truly interests them has been wonderful,” she says. “Words can’t explain it.” Tracey Weinberg of Troy signed up her 12-year-old son, Jared, for the camp because he loves movies. Jared, who has a mild form of autism, has been excitedly telling his mom about all of the activities he participates in throughout the day. “It’s a nice experience to be able to mix with the other kids,” Weinberg says. “He’s excited about the script and about meeting Joey Travolta. Hopefully things like this will help raise awareness of the capabilities these children have.” Besides taking acting class every day, the children have learned about the casting process, going on auditions, lighting and set design. Some of the more shy children have done a little filming work, too.

Every morning starts out with fun exercises “to get the creative juices flowing,” Watson says. It’s mostly dancing. The kids have done the Macarena, hokey pokey and freestyle dancing. On this particular day, the director moves in the middle of the chattering bunch and demands order. “Quiet on the set,” Travolta bellows cheerily, encouraging the kids to arrange themselves into two lines for improvisational dancing. Most of the kids go down hips shaking, hands clapping, fingers snapping. One boy does “the snake” on the floor and the room erupts into loud cheers and hoots. The camaraderie helps illustrate what the camp is working toward. “Most of these kids are used to having to fill days with doctors, therapy or tutors and they’re normally not in an environment where they’re not the majority,” Watson says. “When they come here, they’re accepted. Their needs are supported and they just have fun being kids, which they don’t get to do often.” She says kids with autism often have trouble showing empathy or understanding toward others. The camp is helping change that. “Within one week together they’re all supporting each other,” Watson says. “Watching the kids form friendships is a really, really big deal.”

If you go
“The Apprentice Jr.” will premiere Saturday in the Oakland Center at Oakland University, beginning with a 7 p.m. red carpet entrance at Tickets to the movie are $25. A 6 p.m. VIP reception, movie included, is $75 per ticket and will be at Cafi O’Bear’s at OU. To purchase tickets, call (248) 370-2424. All proceeds will go to benefit Jack’s Place for Autism.

Checking the camera

Autistic young people learn the behind-the-scenes of filmmaking while creating a TV spoof.

Ursula Watson / The Detroit News

’I’m a nobody, I only have two parts.”

The disappointment of a tall, dark-haired, young actor bubbles forth while reading a script for a commercial. This is the third day of film camp at Oakland University in Rochester for youths with autism spectrum disorder.

According to the Autism Society of America “children and adults with autism typically show difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities.”

Encouraging words from a fellow actor, a boy with curly blond hair and glasses, quickly quash the boy’s self-deprecating rant. “There are no small parts,” he says gently.

At the two-week long film, camp producer, director and actor Joey Travolta teaches youths, ages 10 to 18,the ins and outs of filmmaking.

The end result will be a 15-minute spoof of the reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” that will premiere during the red-carpet Center Stage film premiere, at the university on Saturday night. Travolta? Yes. He is the brother of actor John. First Travolta, 55, created Joey Travolta Entertainment Experience based in Tarzana, Calif., a film camp for all kids. Then he took his experience as a former special education teacher and designed a film camp especially for those with special needs.

For three years now, Travolta has traveled, when invited, to university campuses with a small crew, bringing with him a little bit of Hollywood. “I have always been a mentor-type person, and I am doing two things I love the most, making film and working with kids,” he says.

Mary Otto, Oakland’s dean of the School of Education and Human Services, says the film camp is just one of the ways that the university reaches out to children with autism spectrum disorder and their families. The Jack’s Place for Autism Foundation funds the camp and the other recreational programs offered to the kids and their families.

Debra Alvarez enrolled her son, Eddy, 10, into the film camp because he loves the camera and wants to be documentary filmmaker one day. Alvarez says the camp is not only fun, but it also teaches important life lessons, such as setting and reaching goals. Plus, it is great way for her son to just hang out, be a kid and not feel like he is the odd kid out.

“He is making new friends and connections,” she says. “It is really important because he is at an age where he is starting to realize he is a little bit different.”

Seeing the kids in the film camp interact reminds one that a child with autism is just a child. They were engaged, social, funny, a little rambunctious and sweet-natured.

Debi Hall, the film camp’s acting teacher, says the program helps kids blossom.

“These kids constantly hear they are limited,” she says. “We want them to gain the feeling that they can achieve anything they want to.” Travolta agrees. “Art gives them a voice that they don’t have,” he says.

You can reach Ursula Watson at (313) 222-2613 or uwatson@det news.com.

Action

Joey Travolta, second from left, watches a replay of a scene they just shot at a local motel. With Travolta are cameraman Tamir Mostafa, left, student Ivan Medrano and Spark Boemi, right, a lighting and editing expert for the camp. Travolta and his crew are in town teaching a short film camp at the Weill Institute. The 18-year-old felt low. “I did not have the appropriate skills to get what I wanted.” Silva was a different guy Tuesday as he directed rehearsals for the opening scene of a “West Side Story” music video at a film camp for some 50 sons and daughters of migrant farmworkers.

Now, Silva brims with pride. Just halfway through the 10-day camp, he has already decided on a career. “I want to be a film director.” He even has plans for his sister. “I told her that if I become a film director, I will hire her to check my spelling,” he said. Silva and the other camp members at the Weill Institute, 2100 Chester Ave., have found a mentor: Joey Travolta. Yes, he’s the brother of actor John Travolta. Joey Travolta wears many caps. He’s a producer, director, teacher. He has helped children with autism to make a film. And he runs a program for adults with developmental disabilities.

“How many people get to go to work and love what they do?” Travolta asked. He’s high-energy. He does not walk. He springs from one step to the next. His humor and hustle make easy converts of his students, who come from all over Kern County. About 15 middle and high schools chipped in $50,000 to the film program, said Philomena Hall, a coordinator with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools office. Travolta and his eight assistants exposed the students to everything from writing, acting and lighting to directing, filming and working with sound. At the start, they were given an 11-page vocabulary of film-industry terms. Luis Salguero, a 15-year-old eighth-grader, said at first he could not bring himself to talk. Within days, Salguero was playing a hamburger in a commercial that spoofed Mac versus PC. “I didn’t know I was good at acting,” he said. “I see these movie (stars) and I want to be like them.”

So does Jacqueline Saldivar, a 15-year-old junior. In a scene for a music video, Saldivar played the part of a mother inspecting the efforts of a son who promised to clean his room. The location, a motel room downtown, was packed with lights, cameras and props. Travolta and some of his assistants dished out instructions. Even a deaf pit bull named Zoe got her part right after a couple of tries. Saldivar handled the traffic as if she had never known a moment of stress in her life. She, too, wants to become an actress. She said her mother loves the idea. “She’s excited,” Saldivar said. “She’s waiting for the money to come.” Before the program ends Friday, the students expect to complete three commercials, three music videos and one short film. In a tone of youthful bravado, Omar Silva exclaimed: “Movies are my life.” Silva said his mother works in the fields. He knows she is pulling for him. “She wants me to have a good future,” he said.

BY KEVIN GERRITY, Californian staff writer
e-mail: kgerrity@bakersfield.com

Aspiring moviemakers can work on actual movie sets to learn the business of filmmaking, thanks to filmmaker Joey Travolta and his business partner, Brad Koepenick. The Entertainment Experience, West Valley , a program run by Travolta and Koepenick, is an alternative to college, according to Travolta. The Entertainment Experience, West Valley started classes about two months ago for students, ages 7 to 17. Adults, too, can soon participate in the program. “I learned how to produce from being an actor from watching what goes on,” Travolta said. “I learned it by doing and putting together my own money to do my first film. I wish I had a course like this when I was growing up.” Travolta, brother of John, produced and directed many movies and TV shows including “Mel” with Ernest Borgnine, the upcoming “Arizona Summer” and “L.A. Heat,” and he’s acted in many movies, including “Beverly Hills Cop 3” and “Dumb Luck in Vegas.” “What makes (the Entertainment Experience) different from other schools is that you learn by doing,” Koepenick said. Koepenick has appeared in such movies as “The Distinguished Gentleman” with Eddie Murphy, “Albino Alligator” with Matt Dillon and Faye Dunaway, and he appeared on many TV shows, including “Friends” and “E.R.” He also taught filmmaking at the Entertainment Experience in Manhattan Beach and teaches enrichment programs at schools between Thousand Oaks and Woodland Hills.

The Entertainment Experience already exists in Manhattan Beach and the founder of that program had asked Travolta-pre-Entertainment Experience, West Valley -to consider bringing some of the students aboard a real film production that he was helming. Travolta brought some kids onto his movie set and the results were very satisfying, he said. “I like the concept of teaching acting, teaching filmmaking and combining the two. All the people that are involved (in the Entertainment Experience) do movies and television and it gives the kids exposure to people that are making movies, and that’s what excited me about this,” Travolta said. After such positive results with the Manhattan Beach program, Travolta wanted to start his own Entertainment Experience in his Woodland Hills neighborhood, so he did. Not only does Travolta run what he calls his workshop for young filmmakers, but he also uses the same office as his production company where he develops TV and movie projects and completes other business related to the entertainment industry. “This is great for the (young student) filmmakers because they’re seeing deals made, we audition here-we’re doing stuff here all the time,” Travolta said.

Travolta has a background in education. He taught special education in New Jersey , where he was born. “I’ve always had an affection for kids and teaching,” Travolta said. But growing up with other family members in the entertainment industry and being a musician himself, Travolta easily fell into making movies. And he does it all. He produces, writes, directs, acts and has even edited one of his films. Combining education and filmmaking together has brought both of Travolta’s passions into his life simultaneously, he said. Young students are now learning acting, storyboarding, shooting, blue screen effects and more at the Entertainment Experience. But Travolta is most excited about what’s yet to come. ” I want to do what I’m calling a practical film school,” Travolta said. “When I direct a movie, the movie is the lesson plan. I’ll take 10 or 15 older teens that are looking to get into the business and we’ll break the script down, cast, hire crews-you’ll learn every department and work in a department during the course of the shoot … It’s probably like a three to four month course. We have not implemented that yet, but that’s what we’re looking to do.” Travolta said once he includes this course in the program, what he calls “practical filmmaking,” adults could participate in the Entertainment Experience as well as kids. Teachers at the Entertainment Experience are all veterans of the film industry, according to Travolta. As Koepenick said, the facility is ” Disneyland for moviemakers.”

The premiere was a screening and a celebration of the genius in generosity. Joey Travolta’s summer camp, held at Saint Mary’s for the past three years, is a unique collaboration between kids diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, their friends and a professional film staff. This year’s resulting short movie, titled The Really, Really, Really Late Show, was funny, touching, and undeniably human. Fashioned after a late night talk show, 18-year old host Zachary Miller, a student at Acalanes High School, led the way with a humorous monologue. A band, interviews, film clips, clever commercials and wonderful joke cam segments followed. A guest musical performance moved the film from laughs to lovable, reaching just the right degree of tenderness before a Top Ten list, wacky trivia, and silly human tricks brought the audience back to earth.
The rare environment created during the camp and captured by the video is a direct product of the camp’s leader, Joey Travolta. An acclaimed director, Travolta has been swimming through the star-infested waters of Hollywood for decades. He remains remarkably free of the ego movie people wear like a second skin. He’s too busy behind the camera to flaunt his impressive resume in front of it. “I’m there the whole time,” he says of the camps. “I get to take two things I love, working with kids and film making, and combine them. How great is that?”
It’s incredibly great, if you ask the kids. “It was good,” says Christian Magoon, 17, before breaking into a beautiful a capella rendition of Once Upon a Dream. “I was a happy kid to be there,” says Spencer Trevarthan of Orinda. He gives Travolta a high rating, especially for his dancing, which was “excellent.” John McLaurin, a parent deeply involved with this year’s camp, agrees, saying, “He just has a knack for connecting with the kids.”
Travolta started the teen film camps after the mother of a boy with autism contacted him. Her son had an idea for a movie, but needed help: Travolta donated his crew and his time. In doing so, he discovered a larger need. “They [kids on the autism spectrum} weren’t included in regular camps, or there was always a problem,” he says, explaining the origins of what is now a nationwide series of camps. “Film making is such a social opportunity,” he continues, “I didn’t choose autism; the disability kind of chose me.” For kids who struggle to connect in spontaneous ways with their peers, the camp is a practicum and an oasis of comfort. “We can all work together to make something spectacular,” says Miller, who hopes to pursue a film career after attending the Academy of Art in San Francisco.
While the camps were started only a few years ago, Travolta’s egalitarian perspective on children formed during his years as a special education teacher. “One thing about kids with autism,” he cautions, “is if they think you’re not sincere, they’ll turn you off.” The camp works because he doesn’t see the kids as “different,” he just sees kids. The magic is in how he passes that vision to the kids, who then see themselves fitting in, easily making friends-some, for the first time in their lives.
The Moraga camp is in its third year and the college gets nothing but praise from Travolta. “Saint Mary’s has been unbelievable,” he says, “it’s such a quality school.” Not only does the college supply classroom facilities for the camp, students in the education department have volunteered, gaining crucial experience with kids in the spectrum.
Lafayette’s Futures Explored provided organization and staff support for this year’s camp. A non-profit service organization offering adults with developmental disabilities assistance for living and working within the community, Futures Explored Executive Director Will Sanford sees the match as a natural fit. “We’re seeing the numbers of young adults with different learning challenges increasing,” he says, “and we need to be prepared.”
The younger kids with ASD have typically received more early intervention and present well, so it’s harder to see the needs. The camp is an important step in preparing young adults for the social demands they find challenging. Futures Explored and Travolta are now in discussion about adding an adult film camp in the Lamorinda area.
Most of the campers receive assistance from the Regional Center of the East Bay and Alta Regional Center to attend film camp. Although the state has recently slashed funding for children with autism, placing next year’s camp in serious jeopardy, there is hope in the air. State Senator Mark DeSaulnier, appearing to deliver a resolution honoring Travolta and others, made an earnest promise to push for continued support.
Travolta and his crew are adamant about the value, not just for the kids, but for themselves. “I’ve made 16-17 films,” Travolta says, “but these are the only ones where someone says to me, ‘You’ve changed my life-’ so we’ll be back.”