This was a movie my Occupational Therapy 101 class watched together. Our goal was to spent the last Friday not doing more than drifting off, which is a shame, because this movie was pretty good. We were asked to think about the implications of the movie, as well as the characters and their individual struggles.
I'm not going to post a huge essay on this here, and I don't think I'm capable of doing so anyways, but for those interested, here are some main points I want to mention:
This isn't a neat movie. It leaves questions unanswered. There are characters who are realistically confusing and three-dimensional. The conflicts themselves are sometimes just implied, and the director decided to randomly film trees, even though they had no meaning other than being trees.
If “Yo, también” has a message, it might be this: Down Syndrome isn't a disability in and of itself. It's “able bodied” people who are disabling people with Down Syndrome, by infantalising them, by taking away their voices, their struggles, their needs and wishes. (And the irony of my class sitting there and speculating about the characters might have been lost on our teacher, but not on us..)
There are different perspectives you can take on when watching this movie: What I urge everyone watching this movie to avoid is the perspective of someone trying to pathologise every single character. (Laura and her background-story, the chef with depression, or the obvious choices of Daniel, Pedro and Luisa) - It's just not worth it. This movie is great if you watch it for itself. Just accept the random tree, the unanswered questions, the complexity of Laura and Daniel's relationship, and you'll be satisfied having watched it.
Review by PatriciaBlockedParent2016-12-11T18:40:58Z
This was a movie my Occupational Therapy 101 class watched together. Our goal was to spent the last Friday not doing more than drifting off, which is a shame, because this movie was pretty good. We were asked to think about the implications of the movie, as well as the characters and their individual struggles.
I'm not going to post a huge essay on this here, and I don't think I'm capable of doing so anyways, but for those interested, here are some main points I want to mention:
This isn't a neat movie. It leaves questions unanswered. There are characters who are realistically confusing and three-dimensional. The conflicts themselves are sometimes just implied, and the director decided to randomly film trees, even though they had no meaning other than being trees.
If “Yo, también” has a message, it might be this: Down Syndrome isn't a disability in and of itself. It's “able bodied” people who are disabling people with Down Syndrome, by infantalising them, by taking away their voices, their struggles, their needs and wishes. (And the irony of my class sitting there and speculating about the characters might have been lost on our teacher, but not on us..)
There are different perspectives you can take on when watching this movie: What I urge everyone watching this movie to avoid is the perspective of someone trying to pathologise every single character. (Laura and her background-story, the chef with depression, or the obvious choices of Daniel, Pedro and Luisa) - It's just not worth it. This movie is great if you watch it for itself. Just accept the random tree, the unanswered questions, the complexity of Laura and Daniel's relationship, and you'll be satisfied having watched it.