Occupational Therapy Subject Guide

Follows Devin Dearth, disabled by a stroke at age 40, through difficulties with the U.S. healthcare system and an acupuncture treatment and rehabilitation program in Tianjin, China.

Documentary, Music/Dance
A joyous cinematic exploration of music's capacity to reawaken our souls and uncover the deepest parts of our humanity.

This documentary features four young people and their struggles to overcome their reading disorder. The filmmakers include scientific research of diagnoses and treatment of dyslexia, and comments from notable dyslexics.

This documentary educates the public and provides survivors, their families and health professionals an accurate, empowering account of the many challenges associated with brain injury.

The film explores the work of eight artists with mental illness, whose art is displayed in the Brushes with Life Gallery. The Gallery is a program of the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health, where the artists undergo treatment.

Mike Bauer was born to be fast and lived to chase his dreams from acting and singing to motor sports - until a tragic motorcycle accident left him paralyzed, in chronic pain, depressed, and on the verge of suicide. When he meets Dr. Scott Falci, a rehabilitative neurosurgeon and an amateur race enthusiast, who recognizes Mike s potential, they venture into the uncharted territory of designing a race car with adaptive controls specifically designed for the paraplegic driver.

Head Games is a revealing documentary about the silent concussion crisis in sports.

Documentary
At three years old, a chatty, energetic little boy named Owen Suskind suddenly stopped speaking and disappeared into autism. Almost four years passed and the only thing that seemed to engage Owen were Disney films. Then one day his father donned one of his son's puppets--Iago, the wisecracking parrot from Aladdin--and asked 'What's it like to be you?' Suddenly, Owen responded to his father using dialogue from the movie ... Life, Animated tells the remarkable story of how Owen found a pathway to language and a framework for making sense of the world through Disney animated films.

A film about tough, highly competitive quadriplegic rugby players. These men have been forced to live life sitting down, but in their own version of the full-contact sport, they smash each other in custom-made gladiator-like wheelchairs.

Born with cerebral palsy, the 10th of 22 children of a Dublin bricklayer and his wife, Christy Brown was doomed to life as a vegetable by physicians in 1932. His strong-willed mother's love and faith encouraged him to overcome this label. At age seven, he made a mark with chalk grasped between the toes of his left foot, the only limb on his body he could control. With this proof of intelligence, his schooling begins, and aided by his loving family, Christy learns to grapple with life's physical tasks and psychological pains. His courage and determination inspire a teacher, who lends support as he develops into a brilliant if cantankerous writer, poet, and painter. The astounding story of an artist who defeated a physical disability, degrading stereotypes, and poverty to fulfill his dreams.

Biography, Drama
The true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a stroke and lives with an almost totally paralyzed body; only his left eye isn't.

Paralyzed and confined to an iron lung since childhood, poet-journalist Mark O'Brien has overcome adversity time and time again. But now, at age 38, he faces his toughest challenge yet: losing his virginity. With the help of a beautiful therapist, a sympathetic priest, and his own unbridled sense of optimism and humor, Mark embarks on an extraordinary personal journey to discover the wondrous pleasures that make life worth living.

Drama
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a diagnosis of Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease, Alice and her family find their bonds thoroughly tested.

Biography, Drama
A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has become one of the top scientists in the humane livestock handling industry.

Six adults with autistic spectrum disorder speak about their experiences and how they perceive other people's expectations of them.

Drama
Ken Harrison is an artist who is left paralyzed from the neck after a car accident. All he can do is talk, and he wants to die. He make friends with some hospital staff who support him as he goes to trial to be allowed to die.