Trailer for the documentary The Grown-Ups.
The subjects of Maite Alberdi’s documentary are four middle-aged students at a Chilean school for Down’s Syndrome children. The quartet studies and works in their catering department, but to what end? This winsome, opinionated group feels ready for a life of greater autonomy, yet financial independence is elusive in a system that marginalizes them as disabled. Those who caught Tea Time at the 2015 Festival know Alberdi’s capacity for generating tremendous charisma, but Grown-ups’ infectious warmth is balanced with indignation over its subjects’ dearth of options. Grown-ups doesn’t dismiss the innate challenges faced by those with Down’s Syndrome; rather, it merely urges us to consider their desires and abilities on a case-by-case basis.