special needs

How to Ruin the Holidays

Fri, 15 Dec 2023

When a struggling comedian reluctantly returns home for the holidays, not only must she deal with her eccentric family, but she ultimately faces a life-changing decision about her special-needs brother.

More Beautiful for Having Been Broken

Fri, 08 May 2020

Three women’s lives intersect at a lakeside resort and are forever changed by the love of a special needs boy.

Champions

Thu, 09 Mar 2023

A stubborn and hotheaded minor league basketball coach is forced to train a Special Olympics team when he is sentenced to community service.

Act Your Age: The Kids of Widney High Story

Fri, 21 May 2010

Follows the world-famous Kids of Widney High, a group of young adults with developmental disabilities who write, record, and perform their own unique brand of rock music. Based out of Los Angeles, the band grows and becomes involved in other creative endeavors including films, writing, painting, and clothing design. This documentary chronicles Kids' rise to underground cult fame over a ten year period, and incorporates the Kids' recent West Coast tour.

Diaries from an Unconventional Journey

Wed, 19 Jan 2022

A film that presents the issue of disability through the journey of a young girl with disabilities, and her family in a multicultural environment within a short window of time.

Hard Sun

Fri, 21 Nov 2014

After the death of her parents, a young woman assumes primary guardianship of her special needs brother. But as she attempts to balance her new life with her brother and her own blossoming romance, it becomes painfully clear that life will only make room for one.

Love and Communication

Tue, 10 Jun 2025

A young couple struggling with an autism diagnosis faces an uncooperative school district, unproven treatments and their own emotional disconnection as they try to do what’s best for their son.

Float

Tue, 12 Nov 2019

A father discovers that his son floats, which makes him different from other kids. To keep them both safe from the judgement of the world, Dad hides, covers, and grounds him. But when his son's ability becomes public, Dad must decide whether to run and hide or to accept his son as he is.

His Weakest Creatures

Invalid Date

In 2007 Cairo, a zoologist at a failing park witnesses the suffering of the animals he’s sworn to protect, and begins to see his own family mirrored in their captivity trapped by circumstance and yearning for freedom. When a wealthy visitor offers to 'adopt' surplus animals from the zoo, the zoologist is drawn into a wrenching moral dilemma that tests the limits of integrity, sacrifice and love.

Clockwork Mice

Thu, 22 Jun 1995

When new teacher Steve Drake joins the faculty at a school for special-needs students, his unorthodox instruction methods raise eyebrows. But attitudes begin to change when he makes a connection with a particularly unruly student.

Bury My Heart with Tonawanda

Tue, 01 Jan 2013

A historical film about the Seneca culture featuring the Tonawanda Indian Reservation, Bury My Heart with Tonawanda tells the story of a developmentally disabled boy with Downs Syndrome who is rejected by his own family but is accepted and nurtured by the Tonawanda Seneca Nation.

The Falcons

Fri, 21 Feb 2025

The Falcons is an intimate, observational documentary that delves into the world of the Tshakhruk Ethnoband, a remarkable musical ensemble in the Armenian highlands. Comprised of special-needs children that reside at the state orphanage, these young musicians find solace, strength, and self-expression through the transformative power of music.

Musawat, inclusion in the Sahrawi camps

Wed, 01 Jan 2014

Education Center for disabled children located in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria. Despite the precarious conditions in which this population lives since 40 years ago, the Polisario Front as the representative of the Sahrawi people has promoted inclusion as a way to avoid marginalization and discrimination of one of the most vulnerable populations within these territories: children with special needs. "Castro" is the man who devotes his life to this beautiful project fighting all odds: physical, psychic, social, economic, and even the incomprehensions of his own society. The Sahrawis are living (resisting) in one of the harshest deserts on Earth but Castro has the magic formula to achieve the inclusion of these wonderful beings in his society and in the rest of the world: MUSAWAT, EQUALITY.

Maybe We Should

Invalid Date

Determined to bring hope to their rural Pennsylvania community, a couple embark on an ambitious mission to establish a revolutionary therapy center for children with special needs.

Moment to Moment: Teens Growing Up with FASDs

Wed, 01 Oct 2014

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) occur when a pregnant mother consumes an amount of alcohol that is detrimental to the developing fetus. These effects can sometimes be seen in physical appearances and can even manifest in violent tendencies. As these children grow up, the tendencies become more uncontrolled, leading to difficulties fitting into society. This film explores the lives of 4 adolescents with FASDs and the effects that prenatal alcohol exposure has had, and continues to have, on their journeys to finding independence, fulfillment, and understanding the world around them.

Into the Spotlight

Sat, 29 Apr 2023

On the heels of a tragedy and the COVID-19 pandemic, a Dallas-based theatre troupe comprised of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are determined to write, rehearse, and perform their 11th annual original musical.

Sylvie à l'école

Wed, 17 Oct 2018

Sylvie Giroux doesn’t have kids, but every year, from September to June, about 10 teenagers aged 16 to 21 add a bit of magic to her life. These youngsters suffer from autism, Down syndrome, dyspraxia, severe anxiety and intellectual handicaps.

Regard sur l'école inclusive

Sun, 30 Apr 2017

With Him

Tue, 01 Jan 2013

Director Lee Sin Yee reveals a deeply personal and reflective retelling of growing up with her brother who has autism. This autobiographical documentary explores her relationships with her sibling as they grow up together, yet separately. Interviewing her parents and interacting with her brother, she gives us an insight to her past and how she has come to understand her brother better.

Luar Biasa

Sun, 18 Nov 2018

Joko Supriyanto is a high school student in Yayasan Pendidikan Anak Luar Biasa (Special Needs Education Foundation) Cepogo, Boyolali--a foundation that facilitates education for the children with special needs. Joko has visual impairment that disables him to see normally.