Dislecksia: The Movie

Dislecksia: The Movie was a really informative and engaging documentary. Harvey Hubbell directed, co-wrote and stars in the film. He has dyslexia and his experience with it is the frame of the film. He uses actual quotes from his former teachers to show how misunderstood kids with dyslexia are. Hubbell uses a lot of other approaches as well. People are randomly asked on the street questions like "What is dyslexia?" and "Do you know any famous people with dyslexia?" There are interviews with famous people, like Billy Bob Thornton, who talk about their experience of having dyslexia. Interviews are also conducted with scientists, educators, researchers and legislators. The documentary shows that a lot of successful and highly intelligent people, like Albert Einstein, had dyslexia. On the flip side, almost 70 percent of people in jail in the US are illiterate and a phone interview was conducted with a 21 year old man who had just learned to write and was serving a long jail sentence. This shows that while some people overcome dyslexia, many others are negatively affected by it. It was heartbreaking to see the struggles people went through in school because dyslexia is such a misunderstood condition and the current education system is failing children with learning differences. That is the crux of the movie. Hubbell wants everyone to realize that dyslexia is not a learning disability but a learning difference and changes need to be made so that children will not feel uncomfortable or miserable at school. Dyslexia also needs to be better understood by not only educators, but the general public as well. As someone who didn't know much about dyslexia before watching this documentary, I definitely learned a lot and was entertained the entire time.