Up Syndrome | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Directed by | Duane Graves |
Written by | Duane Graves |
Produced by |
|
Starring | Rene Moreno |
Cinematography | Duane Graves |
Edited by | Duane Graves |
Music by |
|
Distributed by | CineClix |
Release dates | |
Running time | 82 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Up Syndrome is a 2001 American documentary directed by Duane Graves. It was picked up for distribution by CineClix shortly after its world premiere at the 2001 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and made available in the US via Amazon Prime. Its director and subject, both lifelong friends, took home the National Media Award from the National Down Syndrome Congress in 2002. The film was selected to join the permanent archives of the United States Library of Congress in 2009.
Using donated digital tapes and a camera purchased with money earned from an eBay sale, indie filmmaker Duane Graves chronicles a year in the life of his charismatic childhood chum, Rene Moreno, who was born with Down Syndrome. After graduating from a high school for special students in San Antonio, TX, Moreno sets out to make his way in the adult world, optimistically battling the prejudices his condition engenders.
Actor | Role |
---|---|
Rene Moreno | Himself |
The Austin Film Society provided grant support for distribution of the film. [1] Later, a shortened 24-minute version of the documentary won the grand prize at film director Kevin Smith's Movies Askew contest in 2006. [2] Scott Foundas of Daily Variety described the film as an "exceedingly playful and refreshingly unsentimental portrait" that does not fully explore its subject matter. Foundas concluded that it is "touching, but one-note filmmaking". [3] Film Threat's Merle Bertrand states that it is "engaging...a memorable experience." [4] Peter Debruge of The Austin Chronicle calls it "a tender and touching character study". [5] IndieWIRE critic Richard Baimbridge wrote, "it's one of the best portrait docs I have seen." [6] Shari Crall of The Californian writes, "I gained a new perspective." [7]
Duane Graves and Rene Moreno won the National Media Award from the National Down Syndrome Congress in 2002. [8]
Tarnation is a 2004 American documentary film by Jonathan Caouette.
Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers' creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the careers of screenwriters, who historically have been underrepresented within the film industry.
Jennie Livingston is an American director best known for the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning.
TV Junkie is a 2006 documentary that chronicles Rick Kirkham's drug addiction.
Sam Green is an American documentary filmmaker. His most recent projects are “live documentaries” in which he narrates a film in-person while musicians perform a live soundtrack. His 2018 project A Thousand Thoughts features a live score by the Kronos Quartet, and his 2012 project The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller featured a live score by the band Yo La Tengo. Green's 2004 film The Weather Underground was nominated for an Academy Award, included in the Whitney Biennial, and broadcast nationally on PBS.
I Remember Me (2000) is a biographical documentary about chronic fatigue syndrome, filmed in the United States by Kim A. Snyder. The film attempts to show just how devastating the illness can be to afflicted persons.
The Murder of Fred Hampton is a 1971 American documentary film about the short life and death of Fred Hampton, a young African-American civil rights activist in Chicago and leader of the Illinois Black Panther Party. During the film's production, Hampton was fatally shot on December 4, 1969, in a pre-dawn raid at his apartment by the Chicago Police Department. The raid was revealed to have been organized in cooperation with the FBI.
The Wild Man of the Navidad is a 2008 Bigfoot horror film written and directed by Duane Graves and Justin Meeks. It was picked up by IFC Films shortly after its world premiere at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, and re-released in 2021 by MPI Media Group. Dread Central named it one of the "Top 10 Bigfoot Movies of the 21st Century."
After Tiller is a 2013 documentary film directed by Martha Shane and Lana Wilson that follows the only four remaining doctors in the United States who openly perform abortions in the third trimester of pregnancy. In 2015, After Tiller won the News and Documentary Emmy Award for Best Documentary. The title of the film refers to George Tiller, a doctor who performed abortions and was murdered in 2009.
Rich Hill is a 2014 American documentary film co-produced and directed by Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos about Rich Hill, Missouri. The film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for a documentary.
Geoff Marslett is an American film director, writer, producer, animator and actor. His early career started with the animated short Monkey vs. Robot which was distributed internationally by Spike and Mike's Classic Festival of Animation on video and Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation in theatres. More recently he directed several successful narrative feature films including MARS, as well as producing and acting in the experimental documentary Yakona. He appears onscreen in Josephine Decker's Thou Wast Mild and Lovely which was released theatrically in 2014. He currently resides in Austin, Texas and splits his time between filmmaking and teaching at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
In the Shadow of Women is a 2015 drama film co-written and directed by Philippe Garrel, starring Clotilde Courau, Stanislas Merhar and Lena Paugam. It is the second installment in Garrel's trilogy of love, the first being Jealousy (2013) and the third being Lover for a Day (2017). The film was selected to open the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
Manakamana is a 2013 documentary film directed by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez of the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard University. It is an experimental documentary about pilgrims traveling on the Manakamana Cable Car between Cheres, Chitwan and the Manakamana Temple in Nepal. The film has been acquired for U.S. distribution by The Cinema Guild.
Be My Cat: A Film for Anne is a 2015 Romanian found footage psychological horror feature film directed, produced, written by, and starring Adrian Țofei, about an aspiring filmmaker who goes to extremes to convince actress Anne Hathaway to star in his film. It is the first entry in Adrian Țofei's planned indie trilogy which includes We Put the World to Sleep and Pure. It is also Adrian Țofei's first film and Romania's first found footage horror movie.
Kim A. Snyder is an American filmmaker and producer. Previously, she spent some time contributing to Variety.
Lenny Cooke is a 2013 American sports documentary film directed by Josh and Benny Safdie. It tells the life of the former high school basketball player Lenny Cooke. The film had its world premiere at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 18, 2013. It was released in the United States in limited theaters on December 6, 2013.
Time is an Academy Award-nominated 2020 American documentary film produced and directed by Garrett Bradley. It follows Sibil Fox Richardson and her fight for the release of her husband, Rob, who was serving a 60-year prison sentence for engaging in an armed bank robbery.
Duane Graves is an American film director, writer, producer, cinematographer and editor who has produced a body of work spanning multiple genres. In 2023, Deadline Hollywood announced he was named one of Coverfly's best up and coming screenwriters. His career began with the documentary Up Syndrome, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2001. A portrait of his childhood friend born with Down syndrome, Up Syndrome won numerous awards, including the National Media Award from the National Down Syndrome Congress in 2002, and the Grand Prize at the 2006 Movies Askew Film Festival hosted by Clerks (film) director Kevin Smith. He formed Greeks Films with film school peer, actor and filmmaking partner Justin Meeks in 2001.
Aaron Hillis is an American writer, film critic, director, film festival programmer, and curator.
Butcher Boys is a 2012 American horror cannibal film written and produced by Kim Henkel, who co-created 1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with Tobe Hooper. The film was directed by Duane Graves and Justin Meeks. It was originally titled Boneboys.