Staff Pick 2010: Naveen Sultan, Blog Editor/Associate Multimedia Producer

One of my favorite t21 features this year is The Horse Boy. It's such an inspiring tale of two parents who are willing to move mountains to help their son. The mix of vulnerability, despair, and happiness that this family experiences on their journey is captured so beautifully in this film. It's a must see not just for parents with autistic children but for all families who have faith that good things will come.

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Synopsis: When their two-year-old son Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson, a writer and former horse trainer, and his wife, Kristin Neff, a psychology professor, sought out the best possible medical treatments they could find. But after exhausting traditional Western therapies, the desperate parents set out from Texas to the other end of the world - Outer Mongolia - with their now five-year-old son, who had developed an extraordinary love and connection to horses, with the hopes that combining horseriding with shamanic healing might help Rowan when nothing else had. The results of their quest may surprise you.

In partnership with:

Michel Orion Scott: Director and Cinematographer

Michel draws much of his inspiration from the study of native cultures, indigenous crafts and a desire to connect with the roots of humanity through wilderness studies. Michel's films focus on simple human relationships and family dynamics, while his background in dance is reflected in his use of movement and framing as metaphor in film.

Rupert Isaacson: Producer

An ex-professional horse trainer, Rupert is a writer and journalist, as well as a human rights advocate for tribal peoples. His books include The Healing Land – the Bushmen and the Kalahari (Grove Press), The Wild Host – History and Meaning of the Hunt (Rowan Littlefield) and many others. He is also founder and director of the Indigenous Lands Rights Fund.

The Horse Boy will air nationally on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Maggie Gyllenhaal, in May 2010, at 10 p.m. EST. Check here for local listings:

www.pbs.org/independentlens/horse-boy/

US Screening Dates

www.zeitgeistfilms.com/playdates_new.php

The Horse Boy DVD can be purchased here:

http://zeitgeistfilms.com/videocatalog/product_info.php?products_id=157

Trailer:

"Horse Boy" Q&A at SXSW 2009

• PBS/Independent Lens
  http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/horse-boy/
• Horse Boy Movie
  http://www.horseboymovie.com/
• HELP - Handicapped Equestrian Learning Program
  http://www.helpcenterofaustin.org/
• The Totem Peoples Project
  http://totempeople.hypermart.net/about_us.htm
• Nomadicare (in Mongolia)
  http://www.nomadicare.org/
• Autism Society of America
  http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer
• NARHA
  http://www.narha.org/

Interview with Michel Scott by Naveen Sultan for telegraph21

t21: What is your connection to this story?
MS: I had been working in films for about five years before I met the family. I was pretty burned out on the film industry and was considering getting out of the business. Around that time I went to a book talk that Rupert was giving on the Kalahari Bushmen of Botswana. I approached Rupert after the book talk and said, "look, I work in film, and this is exactly the type of work I want to be doing."

We hit it off right away, and we started working on a film about the Bushmen. We were in pre-production on this film trying to raise funds for it when Rupert randomly told me at dinner one day, "By the way, I haven't told you this, but I've been secretly planning this trip across Mongolia with my son and I need to do it this summer because he's getting too large to fit in the saddle with me, and we're going to ride across Mongolia searching for these shamans who I hope and I feel in my gut may be able to heal him".

As a filmmaker, a story like this comes along once in a lifetime and immediately I knew this was a project that had to be documented.

t21: What were your thoughts on shamanism while making the film? Did you think it would help heal their son?
MS: I actually did not think that Rowan was going to be healed. I went into the project thinking that I was making film about the incredible difficulty that parents have in raising a child that is not neurotypical. I thought that I was making a film about parents coming to acceptance of their child's uniqueness. And in a way that is the film that I made, but there was a lot more that happened on top of that.

Going into the film, I didn't think Rowan wasn't going to be healed of autism. I've studied indigenous cultures for years,so I wouldn't say I'm completely skeptical of shamanism. It's just that people get healed for a variety of different reasons, and people don't get healed for a variety of different reasons. I was thinking about the reality of the situation and I was thinking the likelihood of Rowan being healed was pretty slim. I think what ultimately happened was that the parents did come to acceptance of their child's autism, but at the same time the beauty of the story is that there is this huge payoff in the end, where something had an impact. Whether it was the shamans, whether it was the journey alone, whether it was the intention of the parents, I don't know, but something amazing happened on the journey.

t21: How did Rowan react to the camera when you first started shooting?
MS: When I first started filming Rowan, it was as if I wasn't even there. He reacted to the camera the way a lot of autistic children do. Whether they notice it's there or not, you don't really know because it's as if you are invisible.

But what's interesting is that as you watch, you get to see the progression from the beginning stages, where he is completely acting like the camera is invisible, to the middle and end of the film where you start to notice that he does react to the camera. I know at this one point he turns around and he looks directly into the camera and huffs - he gives this sad face as if he's using the camera as way to show his frustration.

t21: Did you ever have second thoughts about whether it was appropriate to film?
MS: Rowan's a small child. He was five-years-old at the time, and when you're filming any child you have to be very careful. At the same time, Rowan really had a good time. There were some moments where he was very frustrated, but I had been filming Kristin and Rupert almost a year now. That kind of put it into perceptive for me. I think some people watched the film and were like how could these parents put him on a horse while he was having a tantrum, well a couple of weeks before that I had filmed them trying get his ears examined at the doctor's, and the doctor was trying to look into his ear and Rowan was giving one of the worse tantrums I've seen a child give. They had challenges everyday of their lives before Mongolia.

t21: As the director of this film, how did you prepare for such an extensive shoot, given the fact that you would be traveling by horse for a few days and dealing with rainstorms?
MS: There was some luck involved. It could have rained for the entire month we were there. Luckily it only rained a few times, and it's interesting it only rained after the shaman ceremonies.

I knew we were going to ride horses, so I rode horses for about three months before I left to try and get used to siting in the saddle. For the last couple of weeks, I would bring my camera with me and ride the horse with my camera and that was a problem in itself. I tried to come up with a way to mount the camera, or at least mount a bag or something on the horse so that I could put the camera in it and still have easy access to it. I was never able to design something that would work properly. So, I ended up holding the camera the entire time I was on the horse. I would have the camera in one hand and I would be holding the reins in the other hand. It was intense. I can definitely say that I was probably more sore than I've been in my entire life for a couple of days there, just holding the camera for such an extended period of time while riding the horse.

t21: Were there any scenes you shot that were taken out because they were too personal, or parts you wanted to included that just didn't make the cut?
MS: Rupert never once told me that I couldn't put something in the film because it made him look bad. That was really important, because going into this project I was a little nervous because you're working with a character in the film and that can be a very delicate thing to do. I was very grateful to Rupert and Kristin. They were very dedicated to presenting an honest story of what it's like to be a parent of an autistic child. They went into this project knowing they had to be dedicated to that. They were really accepting of the footage we had that made them look great, and footage that made them look not so great. There were a couple moments that I would have liked to use, but if I didn't use them it wasn't because I was worried about making the family look bad. We just had moments that were more important. As a filmmaker, you want the reality and intensity if it's there.

t21: What kind of feedback are you getting from parents with autistic children?
MS: It's been phenomenal. I've shared so many hugs and tears and laughter with people with autistic children. Sometimes people will just come up to us after the film and share some really personal details about their lives and their struggles. I can definitely say that it's been the best part of the experience for me.

There are people out there who question the shamanism element of the film, and feel that perhaps the parents were being reckless by bringing Rowan to Mongolia. I think that is totally acceptable and expected, and in fact I expected a little more of it than we actually got. There are certainly some parents who are worried that this will make other parents want to fly off to Mongolia for some cure that is not proven. Of course, both Rupert and I try to explain that's not what we're showing this for. It's not about bringing your child to Mongolia; it's about having enough acceptance of your child and love for your child and enough creative thought to step out the box and follow your child into whatever interests they may have. Also, to not see your child's dysfunction as something that will keep him from living a happy life.

t21: Have you heard of any parents who have actually tried to take this trip for their child?
MS: There is only one family that I know of. The family called up Rupert after they saw the film and said "Look, my son also has this amazing relationship with horses and this looks like an amazing trip and we feel like we want to go." They asked Rupert for the tour guide's number and they actually took a trip up to see the same shaman we went to see at the end of the film. I have not spoken to this family, but from what I've heard secondhand through Rupert, is that they had an incredible experience.

But, if the autistic child doesn't care about horses, then we don't think it's the best idea to bring your child to Mongolia. Rupert likes to say, if your child's interest is steam trains, then take your child on a train journey through Texas or Russia or whereever you can make it.

t21: The family took this trip a few years back. How has Rowan been since then?
MS: He is doing wonderfully. He's got tons of friends now. He's reading really well and he's doing arithmetic at a level that is actually higher than nureuo-typical children his age. He doesn't tantrum like he did; I mean, certainly he whines a bit but that's pretty normal for any child. But the tantrums you saw at the beginning of the film, those have gone away and he hasn't had those since the trip.

I think there were maybe three or four on the way home and a week after the trip, but since then he's stopped having tantrums all together or stopped giving autistic tantrums. He's still 100% able to use the restroom like any seven or eight-year old-child in this stage. He has a lot of friends and that is huge. Before we left, he really had no interest in children, and other children had no interest in him. Now, he's got a lot of friends he hangs out with both neurotypical and autistic. He keeps learning and moving forward every day.

t21: What was the best part of making this film for you?
MS: The most important part of the film for me, and the one that I love the most is when Rupert looks at the camera after Rowan's had a really horrible tantrum, and says, "I f**ked up, I made a mistake. This day was about us as parents, and this day and this trip has to be about Rowan, and that was my mistake and from now on it's going to be about Rowan." It was in that moment that I really realized the intensity of the desire that the parents had to accept Rowan for who he was.

I had some worries up to that point. I had wondered, why are the parents doing this? Are they doing this for the film? Are they for a book? What are their intentions? It was in that moment that I realized that they were being honest, and they really were on this journey for very personal and very important reasons.

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