In a Different Key

PBS WESTERN RESERVE (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1):

Tuesday, Dec. 13, at 9 PM

Wednesday, Dec. 14, at 2 AM

FUSION (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2):

Monday, Jan. 2, at 8 PM

A true story of love, difference and the fight to belong. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book of the same name by journalists Caren Zucker and John Donvan, the film follows the mother of an autistic son as she finds and then befriends the first child ever diagnosed with autism—Donald Triplett, who still lives in the small Mississippi town where he was born nearly 90 years ago.  

Today, the rate of diagnosed Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has reached the level of 1 in 44 children. In a question relevant to many, co-director Caren Zucker seeks answers to the unknowable: will the non-autistic majority embrace and protect her child when she is no longer here. “Really, it’s an untold story of an unrecognized civil rights movement,” says Zucker, “but it’s also a love story, where the arc of justice is really bending in the right direction—just not fast enough for mothers like me.”

Donvan’s and Zucker’s film is a fascinating and illuminating journey into the lives of individuals past and present, who have experienced the best and the worst of society’s response to people seen as “different.” IN A DIFFERENT KEY starts with the story of Donald, who was identified as “Case 1” among the earliest published descriptions of autism. There is the heartwarming discovery that Donald’s small-town community has accepted him all his life. In the words of one member of the community, “He’s our guy.” 

However, the filmmakers also document abuse and rejection, exacerbated by misunderstanding, fear, bullying and racism. Standing up to these forces, pushing back against them, has been a decades-long mission for a legion of people—people on the spectrum, their families and their allies.