y y
ar ar
document document
The horse Boy hotel Sahara
USA
The Horse Boy is a touching tale of family resilience in the face of a
GERMANY / MAURITANIA
Images of huge, rusting ships on a bleak beach in Nouadhibou in the
Director: Michel Orion Scott
young boy’s autism. Director/cinematographer Michel Orion Scott Executive Producer: Christian Beetz west African country of Mauritania tell the story of the immigrants who
gets an up close and deeply personal look at a devoted couple’s heart-
Producer: Rupert Isaacson
Screenwriter: Bettina Haasen have come there: they are just as stranded as the ships. They have come
wrenching decision to travel to the ends of the earth to heal their son.
Cinematographer: Michel Orion Scott
Cinematographer: Jacko van’t Hof
to escape the troubled past of their homelands; they have come to build
Editor: Rita K. Sanders
Editor: Kristine Langner
a future: they have dreams that can only be realized if they get to the
When the only child of psychology professor Kristin Neff and writer
2009 / color / 93 min.
2009 / color, b&w / 88 min.
Canary Islands – 1,000 miles away – and from there to Europe. And so
MS: A to Z
Rupert Isaacson, Rowan, was diagnosed with autism, says Rupert, it was they wait in the perpetual present on this narrow strip of blowing sand
MS: A to Z
il
“like being hit across the face with a baseball bat.” Western medicine between the ocean and the desert, willing to surrender everything they
il
provided no solutions for a child in constant pain, and Rowan’s explosive
MiChEL orion SCoTT
BETTina haaSEn
have for a seat on a rickety boat that may or may not make the crossing.
E F
tantrums became a way of life. A horseman himself, Rupert noticed that
Michel Orion Scott’s upbringing
Bettina Haasen studied African
Cautionary tales circulate, not only about the risks at sea but about
E F
h h
T
in a rural wooded area of central
Rowan’s only true emotional connection was with Betsy, a neighbor’s languages and political science in what waits on the other side for illegal immigrants. Yet hope never
T
Texas with a cowboy father and
mare. This gave Rupert the idea to take his family to Mongolia and
Paris and Hamburg. While working as
dims.
Jewish hippie mother has shaped ride from healer to healer in pursuit of a miracle … with Scott in tow.
a producer for EGOLI Films in Berlin,
his professional focus on wilderness
she directed her first, award-winning
Through his lens, we watch the Isaacsons subject themselves and Rowan
and indigenous cultures. For his first
documentary, Between Two Worlds.
German documentarian Bettina Haasen finds the beauty of this place
– with the help of native guide Toga – to rugged mountain terrain,
film, My Father in the River, Scott
Haasen moved to Niger, Africa, in 2001,
and these people who’ve come here from all over Africa – from the
collaborated with the Moseten Indians
grueling riding conditions, and inclement weather. Throughout the returning to Berlin in 2004, where aspiring soccer star who maintains a disciplined training regimen to the
of the Bolivian rainforest, who served
journey, they waver between doubt about their own potentially absurd
she currently lives as a director and
priest who tries to bring comfort to his flock without sustaining their
as actors, extras, and crew members. experiment and encouragement – as in the moment they see Rowan
freelance writer.
illusions. After all, those few who do actually escape to Europe are likely
finally relate to Toga’s son. to be sent back. Meanwhile, their families back home endure their own
pain – as one mother writes in a letter to her son, “Death would be
Though some filming occurred in the Iaacsons’ hometown of Elgin, easier to bear than this endless separation.”
Texas, much of The Horse Boy was shot on the steppes on horseback,
notes Scott: “As I galloped across the countryside, lurching from side Moving and visually poetic, the film locates the suspense in suspended
to side and back to front, attempting to keep up with the family while lives. Haasen, who moved from Hamburg to Niger in 2001, has pro-
holding the camera as steady as I could, it all seemed surreal and impos- duced four documentaries in Africa, including A Love Apart, the story of
sible.” Scott intersperses that remarkable footage with commentary a 13-year-old Tuareg girl on the verge of marriage.
from autism experts, including Cambridge University professor Simon
Baron-Cohen (yes, a relation to that Baron-Cohen) and renowned
Sponsored by:
author/CSU professor Temple Grandin, autistic herself.
In cooperation with: Autism Society of Colorado
In cooperation with: Returned peace Corps Volunteers of Colorado
88 89
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202