Joseph Anthony Mantegna is an American actor. He has starred in the CBS television series Criminal Minds since 2007 as FBI Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi. He has voiced the recurring role of mob boss Fat Tony on the animated series The Simpsons, beginning with the 1991 episode "Bart the Murderer", as well as The Simpsons Movie (2007).
Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy is an American documentary filmmaker. Kennedy has made documentary films that center on social issues such as addiction, her opposition to nuclear power, the treatment of prisoners-of-war, and the politics of the Mexican border fence. She is the youngest child of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel.
Joseph Allen Travolta is an American actor. He is the older brother of actor John Travolta.
Autism Every Day is a controversial 2006 documentary film sponsored by Autism Speaks, and produced by Lauren Thierry, Jim Watkins and Eric Solomon. It follows mothers of high support needs autistic children, and consists mainly of interviews with the mothers.
Bill Guttentag is an American dramatic and documentary film writer-producer-director. His films have premiered at the Sundance, Cannes, Telluride and Tribeca film festivals, and he has won two Academy Awards.
Andrew Jeremy Wakefield is a British fraudster, discredited academic, anti-vaccine activist, and former physician.
Normal People Scare Me: A Film about Autism is a 2006 American documentary film about autism, produced by Joey Travolta. The project began as a 10-minute short film co-directed by an autistic teenager named Taylor Cross, and his mother Keri Bowers. Travolta first met Cross at a program Travolta led teaching the art of filmmaking to children with special needs. He mentored Cross, and the documentary was expanded into a feature-length film.
Children of the Stars is a 2007 documentary about children with autism in the People's Republic of China. It was produced by Alexander Haase and directed by Rob Aspey. The title is an English translation of the expression "星星的孩子", a phrase used in Taiwan to describe autistic children.
The Miracle Project is a theater and film program for autistic children and their siblings and friends, which was featured in the HBO documentary Autism: The Musical. The documentary premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and won two Emmy Awards and many Audience Awards.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) or autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) describe a range of conditions classified as neurodevelopmental disorders in the DSM-5, used by the American Psychiatric Association. As with many neurodivergent people and conditions, the popular image of autistic people and autism itself is often based on inaccurate media representations. Additionally, media about autism may promote pseudoscience such as vaccine denial or facilitated communication.
Sławomir Grünberg is a Polish-born naturalized American documentary producer, director and cameraman.
The Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism is a biography attributed to Naoki Higashida, a nonverbal autistic person from Japan. It was first published in Japan in 2007. The English translation, by Keiko Yoshida and her husband, English author David Mitchell, was published in 2013.
How to Dance in Ohio is a 2015 American documentary film directed by Alexandra Shiva. The film follows a group of autistic young adults in Columbus, Ohio preparing for their first spring formal. With guidance from their group counselor, Dr. Emilio Amigo, the group spends 12 weeks practicing their social skills in preparation for the dance. HBO Documentary Films acquired television rights to the film eleven days before its world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The film premiered on HBO on October 26, 2015. Three young women are the main subjects of the documentary.
Janet Grillo is an American filmmaker.
Kim Roberts, A.C.E., is an American filmmaker who has worked primarily on documentaries as a film editor and writer. Roberts has a master's degree in documentary film production from Stanford University (1996). Her first credit as an editor was for Long Night's Journey into Day (2000), which was directed by Deborah Hoffmann and Frances Reid and that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. She was credited as both an editor and writer for Great Wall Across the Yangtze (2000), which was directed by Ellen Perry. Her work since then and several of her honors are sketched in the filmography below. Roberts was featured in a New York Times article on film editing in 2012. She has been selected for membership in the American Cinema Editors, which entitles editors to append "A.C.E." to their film credits.
Kristen Stills is an American producer and autism awareness activist. She is wife of American musician and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. An autism awareness activist, Stills has hosted and promoted several events supporting organizations such as Autism Speaks. In 2008, she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Special for her program Autism: The Musical.
Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe is a 2016 American pseudoscience propaganda film alleging a cover-up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of a purported link between the MMR vaccine and autism. According to Variety, the film "purports to investigate the claims of a senior scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who revealed that the CDC had allegedly manipulated and destroyed data on an important study about autism and the MMR vaccine"; critics derided Vaxxed as an anti-vaccine propaganda film.
Loving Lampposts is a 2010 documentary film directed by Todd Drezner, exploring the neurodiversity movement and the principle of autism acceptance through a series of interviews and candid footage. Drezner is the father of an autistic child whose attachment to and fascination with lampposts gave the film its title.
Smriti Mundhra is an American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her production company, Meralta Films, specializes in documentary films and non-fiction content.
Simple as Water is a 2021 American documentary film by Oscar-winning director Megan Mylan. The film documents Syrian families across five countries, revealing the impact of war, separation, and displacement. The film is a meditation on the elemental bonds of family told through portraits of four Syrian families in the aftermath of war. Simple as Water premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 20, 2021. It was released on November 16, 2021, on HBO Max.
