Accessibility Description: The image shows a black and white artwork drawing of Helen Keller holding a flower, drawn in digital drawing medium, in my 2D animation style. Size is at 1350 x 1080. It has Keller looking down on her right, which the drawing is based on an actual black and white photograph of her in the exact pose, drawn in caricature. Her hair is tied up in a bun, she is wearing a beautiful white laced dress, and the background is gray and drawn in a shape of an oval. The title "Becoming Helen Keller" is written in two accessibility versions: Braille dots (on the top left) and American Sign Language (ASL) (on the top right, and they're drawn in pencil). On the bottom left, says Film Review.
It's Helen Keller's birthday! She was born one hundred and forty-four years ago on this day in year 1880, and then, became blind and deaf, when she was nineteen months old. In history of her time, Keller became one of the most amazing women and one of the strongest trailblazers to bring human rights and advocacy in the Disability community. This month is also the Deafblind Awareness Month, and so, in today's new post, in honoring for both Keller's birthday and Deafblind Awareness Month, I will be doing a fun movie review on the film documentary that's an episode from an PBS program, American Masters, called Becoming Helen Keller (2021).
Before we begin the review of the film documentary on today's topic, I wanted to share you all an announcement.
In case if you haven't seen the posts I've shared on Discord, Instagram, and Facebook last Sunday, I have business cards! The cards were made for providing services for this blog, The Autistic Animator's Desk, and so, if anyone who is interested in exploring and considered becoming a subscriber, or asking me to do a commissioned artwork drawing, illustration, or painting, or an animation project, the cards will include the blog's link and my email address, so you can contact me by email. And who knows? In the future, maybe they can help turning the blog into a fun animation and drawing business someday, but we'll have to wait and see ☺
Digital drawing, 1500 x 1080
I designed the card on Autodesk SketchBook, in digital drawing at 1500 x 1080, and ordered them on FedEX, so if you are interested in running a business or marketing and need the cards, I recommended you buy them at FedEX. In the meantime, let's move on the main event!
This is the second time to do a film documentary review, since the last time I did was on Life, Animated (2016) for this year's Autism Acceptance Month couple of months ago, and so, if you haven't read the article on my review on Life, Animated, you can find it in the link at the end of this post. And before doing the review of Becoming Helen Keller, last year, I did a book review on Keller's memoir, The Story of My Life, in honoring of the book's 120th anniversary of the publication, which I also included it in the link, if you would like to read the review on this blog, as well. Of course, what's really cool about reviewing this documentary on today's post is that this will be my very first time reviewing an episode from the show, American Masters.
American Masters is a TV series created by PBS (Public Broadcasting System) that focuses on film biographies on the list of famous American people. It was first aired on television since 1986, and now, it runs with a total of thirty-eight seasons. American Masters is one of my favorite TV shows, I love this series, it's a fun and interesting show, and not only it's one of my favorite TV series, but also, one of my favorite PBS programs, along with PBS's Masterpiece, which is a program that runs many beautiful British TV series, such as Downton Abbey, Victoria, All Creatures Great and Small, Miss Scarlet and the Duke, and more. If you never watched any episodes from American Masters, I highly recommended it, and the show has its own webpage part of the PBS website, which I included the full link at the end of this here.
Becoming Helen Keller is the tenth episode from American Masters in the thirty-fifth season, and it premiered on PBS on October 19th, 2021. It's a full-length documentary about the blind and deaf author, socialist, human rights pioneer, and disability rights advocate, Helen Keller. The production was made by Straight Ahead Pictures, Inc., American Masters, and ITVS. It's directed by Michael Pressman, written by John Crowley and Mary McDonagh Murphy, and produced by Mary McDonagh Murphy, with the series producer Julie Sacks and series executive producers Susan Lacy and Michael Kantor. The film is narrated by author, psychotherapist, and disability rights advocate Rebecca Alexander, and with Keller's words spoken by actress Cherry Jones and translated in American Sign Language (ASL) by actress and dancer Alexandria Wailes. Throughout the film includes a full sign language translation on screen, provided by rapper Warren "Wawa" Snipe. It also has two accessibility versions of this film for blind and deaf viewers, such as closed captions for the deaf and hard of hearing, and audio descriptions for the blind. Both of these versions can be found on American Masters' webpage to watch it online, and on the DVD copy.
To me, this is the best Helen Keller documentary I ever watched! I know I have seen other documentaries about her, when I was a teenager, but this one is absolutely amazing. It has a beautiful visual of storytelling on Keller's life, and I really find it to be very inspiring and emotional. It's one of the best Helen Keller films, right up top with The Miracle Worker (1962), and it's one of my favorite episodes from American Masters. Rebecca Alexander did a wonderful job narrating it, I didn't mind of having ASL interpretation show on screen, so that helps for deaf audiences to watch and understanding the spoken words, and what's cool about it was I was able to discover more about Keller that I never knew, not even when I was a child to a teenager, and so, it was amazing to learn more interesting facts on her.
I first discovered Becoming Helen Keller by watching a short trailer American Masters posted on their Instagram page a few months before it premiered. I follow PBS on social media, and both American Masters and Masterpiece on Instagram to keep up with any news and updates on shows and episodes I can check out and watch it on TV. I remember being surprised to find out that there's going to be a documentary on Helen Keller, that American Masters is doing a full episode on it, and PBS is involved with it, and so, that was very exciting for me. I did end up watching it on the day it premiered, and I really enjoyed it. Since it came out in 2021, it was around the same time afterwards, when I was discovering more on sign language, and then, becoming very interested in trying to learn ASL within the next year.
I have idolized Helen Keller since I was a young teenager, but I first discover her, when I was a very young kid from watching the animated short from the Animated Hero Classics series by Richard Rich Animation to The Miracle Worker starring Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke in school, and of course, I was required to read the essays to learn Keller's history as a school lesson. Then suddenly, I became very interested in her at thirteen to fourteen and was very fascinated by her story and how she was able to accomplish many of her successes, not just a woman who was deaf and blind, but a woman with a disability who had the power to bring social rights and advocacy for people with disabilities. Right until I was fifteen that I began to discover my autism identity with Temple Grandin. Both Helen Keller and Temple Grandin were the first two people to inspire me to be an advocate for autism and other disabilities.
There are many surprising and emotional moments for me from watching this film.
My surprising moments were the plagiarism scandal of Keller's short story, The Frost King, she wrote at the age of eleven. She sent it to Dr. Michael Anagnos, the director of the Perkins School for the Blind as a birthday gift. However, it was discovered that there's a story written by Margaret Canby called The Frost Fairies, and the writings between Canby and Keller were similar. Both Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan were put into questioning at the school. I remember about The Frost King story Keller wrote, but I never knew there was a controversy behind it. Second was Keller getting involved into politics and being a suffragette. Even during that time, she was given some negative criticisms, saying what she was saying was pitiful. Luckily, she continues to prove herself that just because she has a disability, doesn't mean she was less smart. At the age of thirty, Keller replaced her eyes with prostatic glassed eyes, and the reason for it was her one eye was bulged on the left, and therefore, she wanted to have nice and beautiful eyes to make herself comfortable with her public appearance. And last, which really surprised me, was her romantic relationship with Peter Fagen. I never knew that Keller was in love, but when the news of her and Fagen getting the marriage license spread, it shocked Annie Sullivan and Keller's family that they told her to end it. It made me feel sad for her, but I can understand it, because I think Sullivan and the family were trying to protect Helen. In that time, many people didn't believe marriage and family was proper for people with disabilities.
The emotional moments for me were on the death of Annie Sullivan. She died at the age of seventy in 1936, and Keller was by her side, during the final hours. They have been together for nearly fifty years, and after her death, Sullivan became the first woman to have her ashes placed into a national cathedral. This was a teacher who has been with Helen ever since she was a child, Annie was the one who taught her pupil sign language to communicate, and how much of an important person that meant so much to Keller. When Sullivan passed away, it really devastated Keller. Losing someone whom you're very closed with, even as a teacher, is very hard to cope. Second was on Keller's trip to Japan, visiting in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1948, after Japan was bombed to surrender, during World War II. She was Japan's U.S. Goodwill Ambassador, and she describes on the devastation of the loss in the aftermaths of the bomb. Keller's visit was very moving for the Japanese people. And last, which it would always get me into tears, is Keller's final speech in 1961 for children with disabilities. It always hits me every time, because it makes me reflect from my early school years of my life, as a student with special needs and going to a special needs class, until I moved on to a regular classroom in third grade. I think about on how lucky I've gotten through with doing successful work in school, getting much help from my teachers, learning independence, graduating high school, and going to college and getting an associate degree. It was really moving for the filmmakers to show scenes of kids with disabilities, maybe just to let viewers with disabilities reflect on their lives, and how lucky on how far they've gone to with their successes, like Keller's.
I really love the film, it's the best Helen Keller film biography I ever watched, and I'm so glad I got to watch it on the day it premiered on PBS, because it gotten me to appreciate her more than ever, and I always find her story very inspiring, compared to Temple Grandin's. It also made me appreciate the communities of the Blind, Deaf, and Deafblind, which until I got to explore on the Deafblind community by watching Protactile: A Language of Touch (2023), a short documentary by American Masters on Protactile sign language for the Deafblind people, also featuring Rebecca Alexander.
I am going to be doing a film review on Protactile: A Language of Touch, coming soon on the first week of July. It's available to watch on PBS and on American Masters' YouTube channel.
If you haven't seen Becoming Helen Keller, please feel free to check it out and watch it, either on your PBS local stations on your television set, or on PBS's website from American Masters' webpage. You can order the DVD copy on PBS Shop, or on Amazon, which I included the link down below, so you can order it, if you would like to watch it. I have the DVD copy of it, which I watched it there for the rewatch, in preparing this review. If you like to share your thoughts on this film, please share it in the comment box.
For any more reviews on any Helen Keller-adapted films, I definitely would love to do a review on The Miracle Worker, both the 1962 and the 2000 adaptations, and also, the animated short of the Animated Hero Classics in the future.
Great job, PBS! And great job, American Masters! Well done! 👏🏻🤟🏻
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