This Event has Passed
Abandoned by his birth parents and unable to speak for himself, DJ Savarese ('Deej') found a loving family and a life in words, which he types on a text-to-voice synthesizer. As he makes his way through high school and dreams of college, he confronts the terrors of his past, the obstacles to inclusion and the sometimes paralyzing beauty of his own senses. As an advocate for other nonspeaking autistics, he embraces filmmaking and poetry, and discovers what having a voice can truly mean.
In this first-of-its-kind collaboration between a veteran filmmaker and a nonspeaking autistic, director Robert Rooy and DJ share editorial control for a story told largely from the inside, by DJ -- not by his parents or autism experts or even the camera. At its core, DEEJ reflects the level of participation that disability rights advocates insist upon: 'Nothing about us without us.'
In this first-of-its-kind collaboration between a veteran filmmaker and a nonspeaking autistic, director Robert Rooy and DJ share editorial control for a story told largely from the inside, by DJ -- not by his parents or autism experts or even the camera. At its core, DEEJ reflects the level of participation that disability rights advocates insist upon: 'Nothing about us without us.'
