Best Documentary—2002 Sedona International Film Festival, Sedona Arizona
Grand Jury Prize—2002 Florida Film Festival
Best Documentary—2002 Sedona International Film Festival, Sedona Arizona
Grand Jury Prize—2002 Florida Film Festival
Certificate of Merit—2001 Chicago International Television Competition
Certificate of Merit—2002 Golden Gate Awards Competition, San Francisco International Film Festival
Best of Show—2002 Indiana Film Festival
Achievement Award—Superfest 2003
Best Feature Nomination—2003 Ohio Independent Film Festival
Official Selection—2003 Council on Foundations Film Festival
Official Selection—2003 Wisconsin International Film Festival
Official Selection—2002 Double Take Documentary Film Festival
Official Selection—2002 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
First Prize—Media Awards Competition, National Council on Family Relations, 2002
First Place—National Association on Mental Retardation Media Awards, 2003
Featured on Public Television’s P.O.V. series
American Library Association Notable Videos
Council on Foundations Film & Video Festival
AAMR Media Award
Perspectives Exhibition, American Film Institute
Chicago International Television Competition
San Francisco International Film Festival
Ojai Film Festival
Big Muddy Film Festival
Autism Society of America
“Stadt der 1000 Fragen” Film Series, Berlin
Orinda Film Festival, California
Brooklyn International Disability Film Festival
Aired Internationally on:
- AVRO (The Netherlands)
- Canal + AB (Sweden)
It is America of the 1950s and 1960s, when a woman’s most important contribution to society is generally considered to be her ability to raise happy, well-adjusted children. But for the mother whose child is diagnosed with autism, her life’s purpose will soon become a twisted nightmare. Looking for help and support, she encounters instead a medical establishment that pins the blame for her child’s bizarre behaviors on her supposedly frigid and detached mothering. Along with a heartbreaking label for her child, she receives a devastating label of her own. She is a “refrigerator mother”.
Refrigerator Mothers paints an intimate portrait of an entire generation of mothers, already laden with the challenge of raising profoundly disordered children, who lived for years under the dehumanizing shadow of professionally promoted “mother blame.”
Once isolated and unheard, these mothers have emerged with strong, resilient voices to share the details of their personal journeys. Through their poignant stories, Refrigerator Mothers puts a human face on what can happen when authority goes unquestioned and humanity is removed from the search for scientific answers.