Title: The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia (2012)
Director: James Redford
Produced by: HBO Documentary Films
Official website here.
This 52 minute documentary is short, to the point and important. As I began watching the film I did not know where they were going with the title "The Big Picture" because it started off like many dyslexia documentaries talking about kids struggling to learn and failure to diagnose by school staff. The film moved on and soon it was apparent that the goal was not to focus on testing, symptoms, debunking myths, or getting best schooling, but to focus on the big picture of how people with dyslexia have weaknesses decoding text but have other strengths that make their skills superior to other people's, namely, creativity and out of the box problem solving thinking skills. Dyslexic people are not stupid, they are smart, and are more creative with different wonderful thinking skills.
One thing that made the film interesting was the variety of people interviewed. Children were interviewed about their lives and their struggles. A college freshman and some young 20-somethings were interviewed. An adult father, a surgeon, said he never knew he was dyslexic until his daughter was diagnosed and he recognized the same symptoms in himself. Other middle aged people who are successful and wealthy thanks to their careers told what it was like for them and how they used their positive attributes to find happiness in life.
Something interesting was that not everyone in the film was diagnosed early or on time. Those who were not diagnosed found ways to study that worked for them, even if it was much harder for them to learn than their peers. They told of their study methods, how they relied on listening carefully during lectures. One said college was easier than high school because with just midterms and finals there are less deadlines and more time to study and absorb the material.
The film was positive in tone and focused on overcoming the challenges through hard work and determination. Not much time was spent complaining about the ignorance of society or failures by school staff. Although one child was put into a private school after the public school refused to provide instruction for her, the focus was not on finding schooling methods that work. There are other documentaries out there which focus on those topics.
I rate the movie 5 stars out of 5 = I Love It.