93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
Mid-Missourians will have an opportunity Monday evening to see an award-winning documentary about autism, specifically the first man diagnosed with autism in the United States.
The event is sponsored by Mizzou’s ECHO Autism Communities, which is a program at Mizzou. Mizzou professor of child health Dr. Kristin Sohl, who’s with ECHO Autism Communities, says doors open at Columbia’s Forum Christian Church at 5:15, and the movie will begin at 6.
“And we’ll have the filmmakers there. They’ll be there to answer questions, talk about the making of the film, talk about all of the different aspects of that,” Dr. Sohl says.
She says the documentary highlights the power of what a community can do to support people who think differently.
“And then it also walks us through how other people with autism may have different levels of support and yet how we as community members, as people who maybe are at the grocery store or who work at a restaurant, can understand and better think about how a person with autism might experience their community,” says Dr. Sohl.
ECHO Autism Communities is part of the University of Missouri. Dr. Sohl says community support is crucial to those who have autism. You can see a link to the film’s trailer here. The documentary is called “In a Different Key: the movie.”
“We can both learn more about autism, so what the symptoms are. And we can learn a lot about how we can work and embrace people who think differently than us,” Sohl says.
Filmmakers Caren Zucker and John Donvan will be at Columbia’s Forum Christian Church in-person to answer your questions tonight. Dr. Sohl says one in 44 children in the United States are now diagnosed with autism.
Dr. Sohl says you’ll enjoy the movie, adding that Love Coffee will be selling cookies, drinks and popcorn. There is no cost to attend the movie, and you can just show up.
