Story Angles
There are a number of narratives within Odd Kid Out; the following story synopses are provided to help focus discussion and questions. Mother on a mission, a journey of discovery. This story focuses on a mother”s drive to find a solution to her son”s ADHD diagnosis. The journey will take us to various doctors, holistic healers and new age medical practitioners. While Karen is trying to find someone to help her son, Kail is coping with the pressures of being “different”. Interestingly, they learn along the way that the very thing causing him such stress is also his most redeeming feature. Karen and Kail come to embrace his ”difference” and celebrate his strengths.
A diabetic father tries to get his son through a year of high school. Daniel is a sixteen year old boy with a double diagnosis. He has Tourette Syndrome and he also has been diagnosed with ADHD. He is being raised by his father who has advanced diabetes. At the age of nine, Daniel discovered his mother”s body when she passed away suddenly, and he and his father Roger have been on their own ever since. His father”s wish is to get Daniel through a year of high school, but Roger”s health is failing and he may have to have his leg amputated. If Roger has to undergo rehabilitation in hospital, he worries that Daniel will be too much to handle.
A family copes with their ADHD child and struggles with the decision to place their child on Ritalin. This story is about how a family copes with an ADHD diagnosed child. The scenes focus on the strain that raising a child like Sarah puts on a family. The things we take for granted, like going to a restaurant or spending close time with a child to create a parent-child bond, turn into stressful or even impossible experiences for the family. The family now struggles with the decision to put Sarah on the sometimes controversial drug, Ritalin. How will this family cope? Will the marital relationship survive?
Press Release
Although the acronym is tossed around regularly, many of the realities of living with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have gone untold. While discussion of its very existence remains a hot topic, most of those actually living day to day with this diagnosis remain in a chaotic holding pattern fearing further exile should they speak out. The stigma associated with this ”Disorder” is so severe that many families choose instead to suffer in isolation.
This documentary breaks the code of silence as three families open their doors and invite the world in. The diagnosed individuals span from the age of seven into adolescence, include both genders and cross an extensive range of socio-economic situations. These very different types of families experience a common bond created by the fact one family member lives with ADHD…we travel with them to further understand the scope of the pervasive interruption in their day to day life. This film does not approach with a sensationalistic attitude, however due to the very nature of its content, sensational scenes will be witnessed.
Fiction gives way to fact as the myths surrounding this controversial diagnosis are dispelled and workable solutions become accessible. This film speaks to a general inquiring audience interested in how differences in our society ultimately touch us all. In effect, we are all different, but some are much more obvious than others. The focus of this documentary is not on the arguments of ADHD”s existence or the subsequent use of medication (although the issues are discussed) but rather on these very intimate accounts of life as it currently presents for these families and life as it could be if ADHD were better understood by society in general. The film is one of a very personal nature as the filmmaker and her son participate as one of the families touched by ADHD. ADHD is a complex reality that forever changes lives and presents enormous challenges. This film proves however, the sentence of social pariah need not be exacted…These lives are much more than redeemable…..! “Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them”. Washington Irving
For more information contact Karen
