AU alumna and former adjunct professor Gerardine Wurzburg are nominated for the Best Documentary Short Subject category at Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony. Three other School of Communication alumni also worked on the film: Gary Griffin served as cinematographer, Barbara Ballow as the editor and Elissa Ewalt as an associate producer.
The 40-minute short Wurzburg produced and directed, "Autism is a World," was originally made for CNN, and is narrated by Julianna Margulies ("E.R.").
The documentary revolves around Sue Rubin, who was diagnosed with autism when she was only 4-years-old. In the film, Rubin is a junior in college with a high IQ. She uses a keyboard to communicate, and "Autism is a World," which Rubin also wrote, attempts to give an inside look into her life.
Wurzburg produced the documentary along with State of the Art Inc. This is the second Oscar nomination in this category for Wurzburg, who won the category in 1992 for her work on "Educating Peter."
Pat Aufderheide, the director of AU's Center for Social Media, who teaches a class on social documentary, has not seen "Autism is a World," but she has several picks for films in the Feature Documentary category. She predicts that "Super Size Me" will win the Oscar.
"'Super Size Me' is a film that, through the experience of Morgan Spurlock on an all-McDonald's diet for a month, links the obesity epidemic with fast food," she said. "It's funny and wry and personal. It did very well in the box office."
"The Story of the Weeping Camel" was another nomination of note.
"'The Story of the Weeping Camel' is a charming and sentimental film, in which real Mongolian peasants play roles in a story written by the directors," she said. "This is a strategy that mimics that of one of the 'fathers' of documentary, Robert Flaherty, who in 'Nanook of the North' employed Inuit to play roles he wrote as well."
Many people expected Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911" to be nominated, but Moore chose not to enter the film as he was hoping for a television release before the November elections, Aufderheide said.
"It was by far the most popular and lucrative documentary of the year," she said. "I thought it was powerful and persuasive to the liberal left constituency. It was able to take a widely shared sentiment and make visible how widely spread that sentiment is."
"Autism is a World" premieres on "CNN Presents" on Sunday, May 22 at 8 p.m. The 77th Annual Academy Awards air Sunday night at 8 p.m. on ABC.
