May 11th the HBO theatre was the New York Premiere of "Mr Blue Sky" by producer Tom Paddy Lee, starring Cheney Kley, Richard Karn, and mother-daughter team, Nancy Rita and Ashley Wolfe.
Guests included HBO and CBS exectutives
as well as Robin Roach, the co-author of "Gifts"(seen with me in this photo) Gail Williamson, of The Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles, and a representative of Best Buddies New York, who sponsored the gala event, were also in attendance.We had a lively discussion after the film about how important having role models of individuals with Down Syndrome in the media are to parents of young children with Downs, and to medical professionals who are too young to remember Chris Burke in "Life Goes On". Gail mentioned that the termination rate for Down syndrome babies is 90%, mostly due to outdated ideas of what living with Down syndrome is like. We parents of children with Down syndrome must speak up like Robin, and share the joy our children bring into our lives.
I was wary about bringing Christina (age 5)into Manhattan to sit through a film with no animals in it. The only other film she sat through was Charlotte's Web. To my surprise, once she saw the lovely face of Lauren Potter who plays Andra as a girl, frolicking on the beach in the opening scene, she was fascinated, and watched the entire film! Do even small children with Down syndrome know when they are being included and treated with dignity? Of course they do! I truly hope that we can obtain a distributor for this moving and important film.
The photos are, in order:
1. Robin Roach (center) and me
2. My mother and Isabella,
3. Gail Williamson of DSLA
4. Ashley Wolfe and Sarah Gurfield, director
5. My mother and Gabbi in Times Square
6. film producer, and screenwriter, Tom 'Paddy' Lee
7.the view from the HBO theatre of the Empire State Building
8. Robin Roach with Nancy Rita Wolfe, who plays Andra's mother in the film and is the real mother of actress Ashley Wolfe.
