By: Ellie McCartney & Bryan Vomacka
Students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) were invited to participate in a workshop that discussed the making of a documentary in a foreign country.
Held by the College of Communications at UNO, Jackie Spinner, an associate professor at Columbia College, shared her experience of creating a documentary in Morocco.
After adopting two autistic boys from Morocco, Spinner decided to take her boys back to Morocco to live in the place they were born. But soon after their arrival to Morocco, Spinner saw firsthand what resources were not available to families living with disabilities.
“My oldest son was getting ready to start kindergarten and I tried to enroll him in school,” said Spinner. “After I told people he was autistic, I couldn’t find a school for him to go to.”
At that moment Spinner said she realized autistic children in Morocco did not have a right to go to school and that her documentary needed to address this issue.
According to the film, ‘Don’t Forget Me,’1 in 160 children around the world live with autism. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that is referred to as a “spectrum” disorder because it measures the abilities and challenges of each individual.
People living with autism show behavioral characteristics, such as sensitivity to sound, light, motion and may even communicate only through non-verbal cues.
Following the next weeks Spinner had several hoops to jump through before she could begin filming, such as finding a crew, acquiring permits, and finding families that would be willing to be on camera.
After applying for a Pulitzer’s grant and creating a Go Fund Me page, Spinner was able to acquire enough funding to begin her search for the members of her film crew.
Selecting two women videographers native to Morocco, a production assistant that had been struggling to find employment and hiring a company that only employs autistic workers for their trailer production, Spinner’s crew was complete.
Now, her film crew could began shadowing the lives of three families living in Morocco with autistic children.
“Filming the autistic children was challenging,” said Spinner. “I didn’t want to overwhelm them with extra lights and noise and all of the things that you know I’m sensitive to because they’re autistic.”
After overcoming those challenges Spinner said her crew had to be very meticulous about how they shot the film which included using camera equipment that would not draw too much attention.
Another factor of filming an autistic child and their families was to familiarize each family with all members of the crew which in return allowed everyone to feel comfortable during the filming process.
Dr. Chris Allen, professor of journalism and communications at UNO said that he thinks students can benefit from understanding all of the ins and outs of film making in an environment that you’re not comfortable with including research that is involved to reach the final product.
In total, the cost of the documentary ended up being $20.000. However, Spinner says in order to play the film in America she has to acquire around five thousand dollars to have the film closed captioned.
After watching the film during UNO’s official screening of ‘Don’t Forget Me,’ Allen said, it’s seeing the images, it’s listening to the parents of the children that just reaches out and grabs you by the heart strings.
