Autism movie features Upper St. Clair family
The Lund family, from left: Don, Brian, Nikki, Catie, Donna and Donny.
One of the three packed theaters showing “The Family Next Door” inside Phoenix Big Cinemas Chartiers Valley Stadium 18.
Don Lund stares down at his kitchen floor as two other fathers discuss their children’s hectic sports schedules. Lund’s schedule is nonetheless hectic and involves four children, but no sports, as two of them are autistic.
“I often say to myself, ‘damnit, he’s not going to care about football – what I did in high school, college.’ But then I say, ‘Yeah. Damn right. Because none of that matters,” Lund said of his 14-year-old son, Donny.
The exchanges are part of a feature-length documentary called “The Family Next Door” in which filmmaker Barry Reese followed each of the six-member Upper St. Clair family over 16 months to document the challenges of raising children on the autism spectrum. It’s a dignified, honest and often funny portrayal of a family’s struggles, frustrations and achievements. The film premiered for free Oct. 1 to an audience of roughly 900 sitting before three screens at Phoenix Big Cinemas Chartiers Valley Stadium 18 movie complex in Collier, where Donny works as an ticket taker.
“It took me three months to convince them. I wanted to do this movie after vacationing with the family and saw Donny pacing around the kitchen and I asked his mom, Donna, ‘what’s going on?’ and she said, ‘he’s preparing for his day.’ I saw such courage and dignity throughout how they lived their lives and raised their children. I wanted to show that so they know they’re not alone, and so others know they’re not alone,” Reese said.
“I hate the word loner. Because he’s not. He wants desperately to be social,” Donna Lund said in the film.
The accidental comedy of Donny’s close friendship with Eddie Zunic proved he’s not a loner.
“Get girls? What, us together, or by ourselves?,” Zunic asked earnestly.
Donny’s behavioral tics would drive most of his peers away, but the eccentric, rule-breaking Zunic doesn’t even notice them, and seems to be a perfect dynamo to befriend him.
Donny’s tics, however, seem less frustrating than the difficulty of raising Brian, 7, who is nonverbal. His tics and erratic behavior require near-constant attention and special education.
“These two kids are literally faces of how far each end of the Autism spectrum goes,” teacher Teresa Fox said.
Brian’s fidgeting tics, like most autistic people, are his way of coping with the world and making sense of the audio-visual assault that his brain cannot process in typical ways. In one of several moments of triumph in the film, Brian grasps the concept of “Ready, set, go” with a counselor from the Augmentative and Alternative Communication Institute as he times the drop of a ball.
The dedication of 18-year-old sister Nikki is evident as she reads to Brian’s class while he stands next to her plying a string and jumping about, not paying mind.
Experiencing an extreme case of middle-child-syndrome is 12-year-old Catie, who placed her hand over the camera and often refused to talk about her family life. That is until late in the movie, when she relents and said she has felt left out, and that she feels her family is anything but normal.
“You assume you can recycle your life and you can give your childhood to your kids. But it’s never like that,” Don Lund said.
The future distribution of the movie is unclear, as Reese said he wants to get it on TV and elsewhere.