Film Review of: LET ME BE ME, A film about love, radical acceptance, and autism.

LET ME BE ME- A Child who used fabric as his shield, grows up to be a fashion designer.

Directed by Dan Crane and Katie Taber

Written by Dan Crane

Produced by Joe Plummer

Executive Produced by Jenifer Westphal

This film invites you into the world of The Westphal family, who embrace the knowledge that their six-year-old son Kyle has Autism. Worrying that they may never bond with their son, the family ventures on an extreme experience to step into Kyle's world.

Let Me Be Me, expresses how the touch of love and determination of two parents, volunteers, and people who care refuse to stop until they learn intercommunication, and conquer the realms surrounding Kyles's battle with Autism, unique traits, his world of isolation, and his demeanor not to be annoyed with the trials of everyday life. This film opens the doors to understanding and accepting a child who has Autism. Autism is seemingly a mental state of discovery, hidden talent, and seclusion that creates a safety barrier.

Children with Autism are amazing, imaginative, skillful, and relentless. They can see beyond our imagination.

The documentary gives you a view of Kyles's childhood and celebrates his adult life twenty years later, as Kyle triumphs from social isolation to professional clothes designer.

Kyles's parents Jenifer and Jeff Westphal child showed symptoms of autism at age 3. Kyles's incapability to make eye contact encouraged his mother to seek a solution. In the mid-1990s, medical professionals toiled to discover a way beyond inhumane methods to uncover the world of autism, which included behavior modification, misdiagnoses, and even being institutionalized.

Through a special program, a glimmer of hope, compassion, and devotion, creating a safe space and stepping into Kyles's world, Kyle embarked on a breakthrough, thanks to the devotion and love of Kyle’s parents and therapy volunteers.

Kyle pursued his dream of garment design, while in his senior year at Drexel University’s College of Media Arts & Design in Philadelphia.

Kyles's incredible journey of acceptance, compassion, and evidence that hope can be part of the tapestry in anyone's life if we open our hearts and walk into the world of possibility.

The directors, of LET ME BE ME summarize the facts of this documentary and startle the world, with discoveries, while challenging what we call normal, different, and exceptional. 

The question is, as human beings we all have traits of anger, moments of isolation, anxiety, and a need to feel safe, we are special with many differences. Are we fighting and thriving to maintain normality? We all face mental challenges but fight the temptation to act on them to remain normal.

Let Me Be Me, Now Streaming From All TVOD Platforms & OTT (Cable) Providers.

Written by Anita Johnson-Brown

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