Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit

SU School of Education professor earns Oscar nomination for documentary film on autism

Thursday, January 27, 2005, By News Staff
Share

SU School of Education professor earns Oscar nomination for documentary film on autismJanuary 27, 2005Patrick Farrellpmfarrel@syr.edu

The film “Autism Is A World,” which presents an inside look at autism through the eyes of 26-year-old Sue Rubin, was nominated yesterday for an Academy Award in the documentary short subject category. Douglas Biklen, professor of cultural foundations of education, disability studies and teaching and leadership in Syracuse University’s School of Education, is the film’s co-producer.

Biklen is a nationally known researcher whose studies of autism have advanced the controversial technique known as facilitated communication. The screenplay, written by Rubin, demonstrates the challenges she overcame in dealing with autism and a false childhood diagnosis of retardation to become a highly intelligent college junior, a tireless disabled-rights activist and an articulate guide to a complex disorder. The film was co-produced and directed by Oscar-winner Gerardine Wurzburg.

Narrated by actress Julianna Margulies, “Autism Is A World” offers an insiders’ look at Rubin’s mind, her daily life and her lifelong struggles with autism-and how, with a means to communicate, she can tell her story. It shows her relaxing and unwinding, and approaching the challenges of living on her own.

“There’s no documentary that’s ever been made to my knowledge in which a person with autism whose speech is severely impaired writes the story, tells the story and gives this insider account of autism,” says Biklen. “Sue Rubin’s accomplishment is absolutely distinctive.” According to Biklen, the movie is a cinema verite account of a week of Rubin’s life. He says, “We followed her around for a week and said we want to look at typical experiences she has in a week – it ended up being more than that. So we get to see her narrating her own life, and she’s captivating.”

Biklen and Wurzburg have collaborated previously, with Biklen serving as Wurzburg’s education advisor on the Oscar-winning documentary “Educating Peter” and on “Regular Lives,” which won a blue ribbon from the American Film Institute.

Wurzburg credits Biklen’s leadership in making the idea for “Autism Is A World” into a reality. “Doug and I wanted to do this film 10 or 12 years ago,” she says. “Doug has been busy bringing the notion of facilitated communication to this country, and it represents a community trying to bring change.” With “Autism Is A World,” says Wurzburg, “we are manipulating reality, as an art form does, but we are doing so honestly in order to take the audience on a journey they otherwise wouldn’t get.”

“Autism Is A World” has been screened in select theaters throughout the Northeast, and will air in early 2005 on “CNN Presents.” For more information on the film, contact State of the Art, Inc.’s Elissa Ewalt at eewalt@stateart.com or by calling (202) 537-0818.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Christine Stallmann Named University’s Chief Compliance Officer
    Thursday, September 28, 2023, By Jennifer DeMarchi
  • Ian Hosein Awarded New Patent For Process that Generates Energy from Saltwater
    Thursday, September 28, 2023, By Kwami Maranga
  • What to Expect With the Link Hall Renovations
    Thursday, September 28, 2023, By Kwami Maranga
  • New Student Association Leaders Aim to Get More Students Involved
    Thursday, September 28, 2023, By John Boccacino
  • Chancellor Syverud Addresses Athletics, Benefits, Sustainability at University Senate
    Wednesday, September 27, 2023, By News Staff

More In Uncategorized

Syracuse Views Fall 2023

We want to know how you experience Syracuse University. Take a photo and share it with us. We select photos from a variety of sources. Submit photos of your University experience using #SyracuseU on social media, fill out a submission…

Phillips Appointed Interim Director at Lender Center for Social Justice; Director Search Committee Named

The Lender Center for Social Justice has familiar leadership for the 2023-24 academic year while a renewed search for a permanent director is conducted. Kendall Phillips, founding co-director of the Lender Center and professor in the Department of Communication and…

Syracuse Views Spring 2023

We want to know how you experience Syracuse University. Take a photo and share it with us. We select photos from a variety of sources. Submit photos of your University experience using #SyracuseU on social media, fill out a submission…

Awards of Excellence Honoree: Maxwell has Been ‘a Guiding Hand’ in Public Service Career

Standing before an audience of fellow Maxwell School alumni gathered in Washington, D.C., for the second annual Maxwell Awards of Excellence, CNN anchor Boris Sanchez ’09 shared the motivation behind his work as a journalist. Sanchez emigrated from Cuba as…

NASA Honoring Those Who Were Aboard Space Shuttle Columbia And Other Late Astronauts

Sean O’Keefe, University Professor in the Maxwell School, was interviewed for the USA Today article “Twenty years later, loss of space shuttle Columbia still teaches us lessons.” The article emphasizes how NASA’s Memorial Grove is used to honor late astronauts,…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.