Film festival focuses on the disabled
The Oscar-winning “My Left Foot,” with Daniel Day-Lewis, opens the Perspectives Film Festival today at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood. Featuring dramas and documentaries about people with developmental disabilities, the four-day event is sponsored by the American Film Institute and the Frank D. Lanterman Regional Center, a nonprofit community center for people with developmental disabilities.
Other screenings include “I Am Sam” with Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer and the documentaries “My Flesh and Blood,” about a Fairfield, Calif., woman caring for 11 adopted “special needs” children, and “Refrigerator Mothers,” which looks at seven women who were blamed for their children’s autism. A moderated discussion or town-hall-style meeting will follow screenings of all films.
“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” will be the final movie Sunday, followed by a media forum, after which William H. Macy will receive a special Perspectives Media Award. Participants in the forum will include producers Janet Grillo, Barbera Boyle, directors Jim Sheridan, Rolf de Heer, documentary filmmaker Jonathan Karsh and actors Joe Mantegna and Andrea Fay Friedman.
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Perspectives Film Festival
Where: ArcLight Cinemas, 6360 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood
Films: “My Left Foot,” “I Am Sam,” “My Flesh and Blood,” “Refrigerator Mothers,” “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”
When: Today-Sunday, times vary
Info: (323) 464-1465; www.perspectives-iff.org
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