Side by Side 38

hSide by Side ... this whole world's a better ride. ©2022 Ron Taylor

Side by Side is father/filmmaker Ron Taylor's 35-year documentary from infancy to adulthood of his son Micah who lives with significant disabling conditions. Intimately recording on film and video, Ron captures his son's ups and downs, milestones and challenges, smiles and tears. We witness Micah in his family and community and interviews with family, caregivers and teachers provide insights into the new realities of Micah's and his family's world.

This epic video begins with Micah's early childhood and continues with revealing episodes till he is 35 years old. Filmed up-close and personal by his father, the film reveals new attitudes and practices that can affect not only positive outcomes for people with disabilities but also greater reciprocal benefits for all family members and caregivers working with challenging relationships. Micah's Boulder family and community, and subsequent schooling and therapeutic communities of Palm Beach and Milwaukee, are models for the Special Village it takes to raise a Special Child.

Not everyone begins the journey of life-long learning as Micah has, but everyone in the movie attests to the new and enlightening attitudes and practices addressing Micah's exceptionalities. The movie covers Micah's schooling, for example, as a model of progressive practices from special education that are also advancing regular education. In this latest release of the Meet Micah Movies, culled from 500+ hours of documentation, Side by Side provides an in-depth view of the many new opportunities for educating and nurturing exceptional children on every level of living and learning.

In public, in-person, with power-point and Q&A sessions, filmmaker/father Ron Taylor highlights from his many years of presentations several 'lessons learned' such as the reciprocal benefits of caregiving for caregiver and carereceiver, peer-facilitation in a mixed-ability classroom, and collaborative learning centers where students with different learning styles contribute to group experiences.

"Parents Are Experts" attests a shirt Ron wears during public presentations. So are teachers, therapists, peer facilitators, self-advocates and other parents who learn together new practices and technologies at conferences and in support groups. Disability Education is a collaborative endeavor. As Margaret Wheatley says at one conference captured in Side by Side: "There is no such thing as normal.... Every child is unique".

Person-centered education for a diverse learning population is an opportunity for every student to learn "at his own pace and in his own way" (from Ron's book All by Self written about Micah's first five years). Because all of us grow up influenced by our inter-dependent relationships, we can identify with Micah's journey in his larger world of diversity and unique challenges.

Like so many great films currently being used as educational tools for forming new attitudes and perspectives on disability--King Gimp, Educating Peter, and the latest Crip Camp, to name a few--Side by Side illustrates the story of our human nurture. It shifts ones perspective from tragedy to challenge, from defeat to hope, and from crisis to opportunity for personal growth.

From the moment of conception until death all of us are interdependent for survival and all of us have varying special conditions that govern our journeys through life. Side by Side documents a particular nurturing family and community that has lessons in new nurturing practices for all humanity. This has prompted Ron to develop the "Nurturing Partnership" workshop that delivers "Show & Tell & Share" film clips from the Meet Micah Movies and also allows the workshop participants to share stories from their lives. Film is a great way to share the lessons learned in one's journey.

"Learning together so that we can live together" spells out a primary theme of the film and appears on a T-shirt Micah wears at a conference on disability in the movie. "Together We Can" appears on Ron's T-shirt stating another theme of how ¬Inclusion fosters greater learning for each individual and influences all of us, proving in the film as in real life another significant theme: Diversity can be our greatest teacher.

A 2015 version of the Meet Micah Movies titled "A World of Difference" won Best in Developmental Disabilities Track at the Bakersfield Film Festival and a 38-minute version won Best Film at the 2019 Disability Education Film Festival at Western University in Colorado. On April 14 of 2022 clips from the Meet Micah Movies were used in a 2-hour workshop titled "The Nurturing Partnership" where Ron and Dr. Thomas Reiley, Micah's first neurologist, led 40 participants in a Show & Tell & Share their disability stories.

COMMENTS on the Meet Micah Movies and Ron's book All by Self:

"Ron, that film (Side by Side) is so awesome! It is a testament to you, your family and especially to Micah what love, determination and hard work will do for you. I absolutely loved it! Thank you for sharing it."
David Brady, Producer of the feature film "The Grey Fox"

"The book you hold in your hands contains a story that my family is also living. Like the author Ron Taylor I am the father of a special-needs child, and when I first read All by Self, I was struck by the sensitivity of this tale of a little boy going down the road of life. Long may you run Micah and thank you Ron for putting into words what so many of us feel."
Neil Young, Musician and Father of a child with disabilities

"When we can help people who have special needs, we reach a greater level of our own humanity."
Peter Yarrow, (Peter, Paul and Mary}, Keynoter TASH Disability Conference

"This book (All by Self), an expression of love from a parent, tells us what we all need to know about parenting, teaching, and getting to know a child with special needs."
Brian McNulty, Colorado Department of Special Education:

"A very honest and sensitive depiction of a 'father and son' story (All by Self) which also educates the readers and listeners about disability and ability."
Mary Falvey, Professor of Exceptional Education, California State University

“(Ron Taylor’s) multimedia workshop…inspired new insights for the professionals and parents who attended. Your experiences parenting and teaching…can provide learning opportunities for families and professionals.”
Julie Smith, Oklahoma U. Health Sciences Center

“Our community is extremely excited and gratified at [Ron Taylor's] willingness to participate in these trainings of parents of children in special education…and special ed professionals."
Michael Bailey, Father and Past President National Disability Rights Network

To Whom it May Concern,
I’ve had the joy of viewing Ron Taylor’s films that document his son Micah’s life from birth to adulthood. We so rarely have an opportunity to observe the life of someone growing up over all these years – much less to be allowed access into the life of an amazing young man who has a disability. The film invites us into Micah’s life as well as those of his family, friends and caregivers. We meet Micah through the eyes of his loving family and through the perspectives of the people who were in his life when he was a very young child to those who have supported him as he grew into an adult with a life and perspectives of his own.
The films provide much more than an understanding of what it is like to grow up with a significant disability – we learn from those who have learned and grown through their relationships with Micah over the years. These are not one-way helping relationships but rather rich connections and mutual opportunities for growth and appreciation.
These are films that stick with the viewer over time. They offer new ways of thinking about disability, family and the mutual benefits of caregiving. Taylor’s films open the doors for people to see that a child with disabilities brings love, hope and a rich future. I am extremely enthusiastic in my recommendation of these films. They should be on the 'must see' list for teachers, parents, professionals in the disability field and all who are open to viewing disability through a refreshing new lens.
Sincerely,
Nancy Weiss
Nancy R. Weiss, Director
National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities
111 Alison Hall West  Newark, Delaware  19716  (302) 831-4728 www.nlcdd.org  info@nlcdd.orgAugust 2, 2019

Director Biography - Ron Taylor
I am Ron Taylor: father, filmmaker and presenter at film & disability workshops and conferences. I began my professional career as an assistant professor of Film and Photography at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and when I became a parent of two sons with traumatic births--one with significant disabilities--I turned my documentary filmmaking to capturing and sharing my two sons lives and the lessons I was learning in nurturing them.

Growing up in North Carolina in an industrial, southern town, I liked giving Friday night sermons from the synagogue pulpit, achieving Eagle Scout, practicing social-issue reform as high school president, and graduating to studies in Humanities and Film as an art form at the Illinois Institute of Technology where I received a Master of Science in Film/Photography from the Institute of Design.

I continued my newfound passion for portraying in film beauty, goodness, and what little wisdom I could learn from my filmed portraits of exceptional people I met when I was teaching at Penn State College, at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for a year to shoot my autobiography SUCKALO, and five years after that at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Edited in Boulder those five years, in 1975 SUCKALO had a one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Moving to Boulder, Colorado in 1975, I was chosen Colorado Filmmaker of the Year by the Breckinridge Film Festival. I was showing my film Suckalo, a four-hour experimental-documentary portraying my psychedelic memory of growing up in the 60’s South. Robert Ebert gave it a thumbs up as did the Los Angeles Times, Daily Reporter and Variety.

My first son was born seriously premature in 1980. He turned my focus from film portraits of amazing people to his developing a quality life. Jonah Has A Rainbow won several awards that cemented my journey into the up-close and personal world of documentary filmmaking. In 1984, my son Micah was born. Micah was diagnosed at just 3 weeks with Cerebral Palsy. Naturally, I became absorbed with documenting the extraordinary experience parenting this special child. Myriad videos, a book, and educational lectures later, over the past thirty-five years, I have produced and shared my son Micah’s life in film.

I taught film and photography as an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Robert Ebert gave Suckalo a thumbs up and short reviews were posted in the Los Angeles Times, and Variety. During six Labor Day weekends in the 1990s, I produced over 100 45-minute speaker videos on social justice, personal healing, and protecting the environment at John Denver's Choices for the Future Symposia. What an awakening that was!

In 1980 my first son Jonah was born 3 months premature and almost died from pre-mature lungs on his seventh day. 5 years later, my film Jonah Has A Rainbow won several awards for documentary and set me on my second son's lessons about life in 1984 when Micah was diagnosed at just 3 weeks with Cerebral Palsy. His challenges took me deeper into a new paradigm of exceptional parenting, documenting his extraordinary growth experience. Videos, a book, and educational power-points over thirty-five years have shared my son Micah’s growth from infancy to adulthood.

Director Statement
Parenting a child with significant disabilities has changed my perspective on relationships with others and with life's purpose. I make movies to share my 'lessons learned' with others in hopes of expanding the collective consciousness of humanity and our potential for compassion and creation of beauty, goodness, and wisdom. For my career and work I early-on chose to pursue the humanities for meaning and expression which came together in film communications. I have been rewarded in the resulting appreciation others feel and understand from my work.