Excellent documentary about a young man with autism

Roger Ross Williams's documentary Life, Animated is a powerful, emotional, and honest account of the struggles of one young man, Owen Suskind, and his family to help him overcome severe autism that transformed him into near silence at age 3. Over the course of his life - at the time of the film he is 23 - he struggles, along w/ heroic efforts by his parents and older brother and by several teachers and case workers, to make contact with others and to live a happy and fulfilling life w/ some independence. A significant aspect of his personality is that he takes great solace from and finds meaning in Disney animated movies, about which he is somewhat of a savant. Evidently, the clear resolution of crises and dilemmas helps him (and others like him - he founds a Disney movie club at his school for children and young adults w/ special needs) make sense of his world and of social relationships. Touchingly, he in particular identifies with the "side kicks." Some of the scenes of Owen interacting with classmates, particularly with the "sweetheart" Emily, are sweet and painfully touching. One highlight is a brief speech Owen makes at an international conference on autism, in which he says that people think those with autism don't want contact w/ others - but that's not true, he says. We just don't know the clues to help us make this contact. So sad. There's no easy or obvious answer for Owen or others like him, but he's blessed with a great family that can support him emotionally and to an extent financially. The movie is based on the book by his father, Ronald Suskind; Williams does a great job letting the story tell itself, staying in the background, never intervening in the scenes he's recording, keeping interviews with experts to a bare minimum.