WITHOUT APOLOGY

Resource #
DVD • WIAD818W

Price $185.95

Program Contents:  73 minutes

Captioning: Closed Captioned

Copyright Date: 2004

In this documentary by Susan Hamovitch, she tells about her family's dark secret: her brother Alan, who was born with Autism and a severe developmental disability. Institutionalized in 1958, a taboo family topic for more than thirty years, Alan is now emerging as a member of his family and the world, only after the expose of his state-run facility, the radical overhaul of medical thought, and the intervention of the civil rights movement for the developmentally disabled.

The shroud of secrecy that surrounded Alan’s disappearance has prompted the filmmaker to probe delicately but persistently beneath the surface of the family’s silence: to find answers to why and how Alan’s placement occurred and why so much was left unsaid.

Without Apology reveals a story of personal and historical transformation, spanning the last half century. Sometimes shattering, sometimes touching, always honest, it is a story that can only be told now that Alan can be seen… without apology.