Tying Your Own Shoes portrays 4 people with Down Syndrome. Shira Avni’s film mixes interviews with animation and emphasizes the independence and artistic interests of the 4 interviewees as well as their frustrations with dealing with people’s lack of understanding regarding living with Down Syndrome.

Tying Your Own Shoes is a short film (about 16 minutes) so these portraits are very cursory.  Unfortunately, these brief portraits feel slight and left me wanting to know about these people. The film works as a brief introduction to what living with Down Syndrome is like and provides an enlightened view of the condition. Unfortunately, it does present any new information to anyone other than those totally unfamiliar with the topic. Because of this basic approach, the short run time, and the animation, Tying Your Own Shoes seems more appropriate for a younger audience. That’s not a criticism of the film, just a concern of its appropriateness for the Notable Videos for Adults list.

The film implies that the animation was done by the 4 interviewees; however the end credits reveals three additional animators, leaving one to wonder how much of the animation was done by the individuals portrayed in the film.

Note: I have started a page to list all the 2011 films.