 |
 |
For more than ten years, Gerardine Wurzburg has filmed a young man with Down Syndrome named Peter Gwazdauskas. We sat down with Wurzburg to talk about how she got involved with this project, what moved her most, and where Peter is now.
HBO: Tell us how you first became involved with Peter and his story.
Wurzburg: In 1987, we did a film for PBS called "Regular Lives," about the inclusion of people with disabilities into schools, into jobs and into the community. We used real people, and one of the things that I filmed was a second grade class where a student with severe disabilities was being included in the class with non-disabled students. Educating Peter came out of that project.
HBO: What did you expect?
Wurzburg: When we started, we didn't know how it was going to turn out. Peter hadn't been with regular kids, and his way of communicating sometimes was to be physical. One of the really difficult things to see happen was when he would strike out and hit someone. What the school did, which was really remarkable, was they had a Special Ed teacher who came into the class several times during the year and would work with the students to figure out what was working well with Peter, what wasn't and how problems could be solved. There was this real sense of, "Peter is a human being." They also believed in all the kids' capacities to grow and change and accept. The teacher, Martha Ann Stallings, was, in my mind, the single-most important factor in making Peter's inclusion a success. She created a classroom and a learning situation where everyone could succeed.
HBO: What emblematic moments did you choose in the film?
Wurzburg: Overall, I wanted to capture what Peter was experiencing - from his point of view. Sometimes, people weren't paying attention to Peter. Sometimes, he would be working in a basement laundry room at the high school, having a "behavior problem." Sometimes, people would disrespect him, and he would act out. Peter would have great success with people that believed in Peter. With people who didn't believe in Peter, it was a completely different story. Since his communication skills are so low, his "bad behavior" would often be his only way of communicating. As an observer, it was really hard to see that as it unfolded, and for viewers, those scenes are difficult.
In looking back, middle school for Peter was very much the experience that many of us had in middle school, where we start to feel really isolated. Peter's isolation was much more exacerbated, because that's when it became clear to him how different he was from everyone.
As he entered high school, I thought it was important to capture his first day as a freshman, that new sense of potential. As he moved through high school, he seemed so lost and isolated. In his junior year, when he joined the soccer team as the team manager, things started to change. He went to the prom, he went to basketball games, he started getting a group of friends around him, both disabled and non-disabled. The fact that the coach saw that there was a place for Peter on the soccer team is a phenomenal tribute to human beings.
The interesting thing about Graduating Peter is that it's not a neat, tidy, happy ending. Peter needs a lot of support, and to keep things moving forward, those supports are going to need to be there. In the film, you see not only what happens in terms of Peter's family and in terms of Peter, but you also see the efforts that were made by others on his behalf.
HBO: Are there specific instances from the filmmaking that really stand out for you?
Wurzburg: A moment that really stands out for me was one time when we were riding on an elevator with Peter in high school going down into a basement where he would fold towels [as part of his job placement]. Very often it would appear as though he was not aware that we were there. But I remember this time in particular because as he went down the elevator, he looked over right into the camera as if to say, "I'm glad you're here to witness what I go through." And it proved to be a very difficult situation. The scene is very difficult to watch.
But Peter would also do some funny things. One time, he saw how the cameraman and the soundman were following him. He started going in a circle around and around, and tied them in a knot. Often, when we would be changing tape, he might stop playing basketball with his brother and help with the tape change. He knew how to do all those things.
HBO: Is there a postscript to this film?
Wurzburg: The postscript is where Peter is now. Peter moved in with two college students in August 2002. It's been a remarkable change in Peter, being on his own, the way it is for all of us. I think that's the overall message I want to communicate in the film. Sometimes, I'd be struggling with some of the things we saw, and thinking, "Oh, Peter's just having such a hard time." Then, it would dawn upon me, "This is a lot like how it was for me in my first year of high school," or "This is what middle school can sometimes be like for any kid who's a little different." We're all a little different. Finally, you get to high school and you get to celebrate those kind of real classic moments like graduation -- those moments are so powerful for everybody. Regardless of everything that went on, Peter had an experience like what a lot of us had in high school. That's what his parents really wanted for him -- to graduate from high school and have the same experiences that his brothers and sister had.
|
|
|
|
|
