Will Introduce Hubbell’s Latest Documentary

By Shannon Hicks

When the Connecticut Film Festival makes a stop in Newtown this spring, a former Newtown resident and distinguished filmmaker will be right in the center of the action. Harvey Hubbell V is nearing completion of Dislecksia: The Movie, a 90-minute film on the learning condition dyslexia, and it may finally receive its premier in the town Mr Hubbell in which grew up.

A small group who braved snow and increasingly icy conditions on February 18 had the opportunity for a sneak preview of the film, hosted by Mr Hubbell himself, in the meeting room at C.H. Booth Library.

“This is a rough cut. We’re still putting it together,” cautioned Mr Hubbell. “You guys are really seeing a sneak preview.”

About one in seven Americans — or 15 to 35 million residents of this country, according to the Mayo Clinic — are dyslexic. Most who are do not event know they are dyslexic. They just think they have difficulty reading, writing, spelling, and learning in general. A dyslexic person often has above average intelligence, however. They just learn differently.

“We all learn in different ways, but we go into school and are expected to sit together and all learn the same way,” Mr Hubbell said in introducing the trailers for Dislecksia.

The gathering was one part film festival preview and one part support group, considering many of those in attendance are directly affected by the reading and information processing condition that is misunderstood by a large percentage of this country’s population. The simple definition says dyslexia is a condition that creates difficulty with reading and spelling. The thing is, it is also a complicated neurological condition that most public school teachers do not know how to reach.

Mr Hubbell, according to the website for Captured Time Productions, embarked on the self-described “mission to raise awareness on the topic, and to help dyslexics to get the education they need by offering the movie as a tool for advocates who work to get laws changed.”

It was not until 1975, two years before Mr Hubbell graduated from Newtown High School, that the first laws were passed to identify students with learning disabilities, and to support their rights to education. It was too late for Mr Hubbell, who was college bound and had better luck with visual approaches to learning (as do most dyslexics), and he and countless others feel enough still has not been done to reach those with the condition.

“When we began sending troops to Iraq a few years ago everyone said, ‘We can’t send them in there without proper equipment,’ yet we send teachers into their own ‘battleground’ without the proper equipment and training for their own students,” said Mr Hubbell, who said he plans to use the film to reach Board of Education members at “regular” schools, not necessarily the schools where students with the special educational needs are already being reached.

“With those special schools, you’re preaching to the choir,” he said.

Many people unaffected by dyslexia do not fully understand the condition. When Mr Hubbell and his film crew spent time in New York City asking people on the street, “What is dyslexia?” answers ranged from a sexually transmitted disease to a condition where people have trouble sleeping. Others were honest and admitted they just don’t know what it is.

A series of three trailers was shown last Wednesday evening. Newtown residents who show up for the full screening in April will get a kick out of looking over Mr Hubbell’s shoulder in some of the film’s early scenes: a then-boarded up Grand Union can be clearly seen in the background when Mr Hubbell talks about his years of attending Hawley School.

As with most Captured Time Productions documentaries, Dislecksia uses humor to tell a serious story (“We are the pioneers of the comic documentary,” boasts the studio’s website). This one also uses a lot of self-deprecating humor, with Mr Hubbell not only narrating the film, but also poking fun at himself along the way. Family members are interviewed, and Mr Hubbell goes through brain imaging at Georgetown University Medical Center to illustrate how he processes language compared to those who do not have the condition he was diagnosed with at age 6.

Dislecksia: The Movie includes clips of home movies from his childhood and stock footage to tell his story, interspersed with interviews with educators, parents, experts, and other dyslexics, among them Congressman Kendrick Meek, Tae-Bo creator Billy Banks, motivational speaker and author Rob Langston, and the Emmy-winning writer Stephen J. Cannell.

Sections of the film also cover alleged dyslexics, including Einstein (“He was never screened, so who knows if he was or not,” posited Mr Hubbell), da Vinci and Oswald; and famous dyslexics — Richard Branson, Nelson Rockefeller, and Charles Schwab among them.

It is not just Mr Hubbell who is personally invested in this film. Its writer, the Emmy-winning screenwriter Jeremy Brecher, is dyslexic, as are several members of the film crew.

The CT Film Festival

Earlier this month the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to allocate $10,000 to the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission to host a one-day Connecticut Film Festival (CFF) event at Edmond Town Hall. According to Film Festival Executive Director Tom Carruthers, the centerpiece of the daylong, multifilm program will be several screenings of Dislecksia: The Movie, a prime-time panel discussion featuring the filmmaker, and other authorities speaking on the learning disability, as well as a fundraising reception.

Mr Carruthers, who was on hand with several cultural commissioners at the selectmen’s meeting on February 9, told The Newtown Bee he is targeting either the first or second Saturday in April for the event. Mr Carruthers also told the selectmen he expects this Newtown stop on the traveling schedule of CFF will attract many people to town who have special interest in this film and the learning disability it exposes.

“It’s not going to be just the clips in April, it’s going to be closer to the final 90-minute cut,” Mr Hubbell promised last week. “In Connecticut we’re lucky enough to have huge advocacy groups, and we’ll have many of them represented [during the CFF event].

“We’ll have a panel discussion, and it’ll be a lively one because these people are very passionate. The plan is also to have a reception,” he continued.

Although the date of the event is still being decided, members of Newtown Cultural Arts Commission (NCAC) are moving forward with their plans to host the event. Volunteers are needed.

Jennifer Johnston, who was at the screening along with NCAC member Debbie Aurelia, is hoping to hear from anyone interested in hearing from potential helpers, participants, educators — anyone who would like to help in the presentation of Newtown’s CFF event. Contact her at 426-9299.