To read the full review, click here.

I had the pleasure of being able to see the encore performance of “Gork” at the Iowa City Public Library. It was a very real portrayal about a family giving their all while raising a child with a disability.

“Gork” portrays the love and relationships between parents, siblings and friends. The Terrill family’s devotion and delight was evident in the showcasing of the unique gifts that their brother, Adam, possesses. So often, our society sees only the person’s limitations, and judges harshly when the standard of perfection isn’t met.

I also am a parent of an adopted adult child with disabilities, who now is struggling in the adult world, as well as a professional working with adults with disabilities, I related to the frustration the family expressed about working with a public school system that labels, but really doesn’t teach, and then moving on to the adult services system that is now so difficult to access, and will only become more so with looming cuts in programs and services. I also could relate to the fear these parents expressed about what the future holds for their adult child who will need on-going support in a very tenuous and scary world.

“Gork” is about a real family who very honestly shares their experiences, feelings and differences of opinion related to their child, throughout the growing up years into adulthood. It definitely is a message from the gut but also very much from the heart. I highly recommend it.

Starla Elsberry, Marshalltown, IA

I recently had the pleasure of seeing the film “GORK!” for the third time at an encore screening at the Iowa City Public Library last week (“Our View — New autism documentary shows more support needed for families ‘on the spectrum,’” Sept. 22). Each time I am more convinced it could be a very important film if there is a wide enough distribution.

This film shares the non-airbrushed version of the joys and frustration of dealing with school systems, physicians, supervised living, human services and a host of issues that, rather than helping individuals and families identify and locate needed services, only seem to serve as a source of frustration. Underfunded and fragmented, this system provides little hope and seems to focus on the negatives.

I thank Adam, Autumn, Devon and the rest of the Terrill family for sharing with us this intimate family story and for inviting audiences to laugh, cry and curse with them as the story unfolds, while sharing with others that they are not alone in their struggles. This film is likely the best true-to-life dealing with real families and the very real issues they deal with every day that I have ever seen.

For those of you who have not seen it, yet contact the folks at the Landlocked Film Festival, maybe we can get another review; perhaps at the Englert.

For information about the film, visit http://gorkthemovie.com.

Terry Cunningham

Iowa City

GORK! turns a spotlight on the outrageous, charismatic, and perplexing Adam Terrill, his challenges and disabilities, and his impact on the dynamic of his 7-member family.

After the screening, Adam’s brother Roman led a lively Q&A, where several topics were covered, including ways in which this film might be used as an educational tool and as an instrument for advocacy.

“I’m glad to have finally gotten a chance to see this wonderful, funny, honest and touching documentary.”
Mary Blackwood, President & Festival Director, Landlocked Film Festival

“Enjoyed viewing Gork tonight! Incredibly powerful and moving. Roman did a great Q&A too. Thank you for letting our community into your family.” Jill Dodds, Simple Abundance Child Care, Coralville, IA

Both have made films from the heart.

Terrill, 37, who grew up in Marshalltown, has captured her family’s journey through autism in “Gork!” Chicago native Kurcz, 34, based “Big Time” on her own joys and frustrations of nurturing a small business.

“It’s been my dream since I was a little girl to make a film. I just didn’t know it was going to be about me,” Kurcz says with a laugh during a recent phone interview from her home in Los Angeles. “When you finish something so important, you want to share it. It’s important for me to share it in Iowa City and Chicago.”

“The Big Time” hits the Englert Theatre screen at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 27. “Gork!” follows at 7 p.m. that day at the Bijou Theater in the Iowa Memorial Union.

“Our Iowa City connection is pretty serious,” Terrill says. “I went to school there, my dad went to med school there, my brothers went there. I’m hoping we can reach out to everybody we have there and blow out this screening and literally have people standing outside the door.”

Both filmmakers have what Landlocked is looking for.

“We like high-quality films where somebody has a story to tell, whether documentary or narrative,” says festival president Mary Blackwood, 54, of Iowa City. “Somebody who can make a film from the heart that’s a real story, a real feeling, a real person or a real topic that’s going to grip the audience.”

The festival runs from Aug. 25 to 28 in downtown Iowa City, with most feature film screenings at The Englert and The Bijou. Other films, workshops and panel discussions will be held at the Sheraton Hotel, Hotel Vetro and the Iowa City Public Library.

Run entirely by volunteers, Landlocked is just in its fifth year and already is attracting 200 entries, which boggles Blackwood’s mind.

“A lot of films have come from around the country, especially from Los Angeles,” she says. “A lot of them have come to our festival and are passing the word around among their filmmaker friends.”

Seventy-two films were chosen for Landlocked, including narrative features and documentary features in the 90-minute range; narrative and documentary shorts from 6- to 65 minutes; animation, some for adults, others for all ages; music videos; and student films.

“We like to encourage young filmmakers who are going to be making the big-time film in the future,” Blackwood says.

International entries, all with English subtitles, come from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Syria, Uganda and the Ukraine.

Diversity is what it’s all about, Blackwood says.

“We like to have a diversity of topics,” Blackwood says. “We like to have some (films) from different corners of the world and some from Iowa. Every one is an independent film — one is that not produced by the Hollywood moviemaking system.”

Terrill and Kurcz have made documentaries designed to entertain, as well as educate.

“Gork!” focuses on Terrill’s adopted brother Adam, who was born to a 14-year-old incest victim, left on a doorstep, then brought to the emergency room where Terrill’s father worked. Adam came to their home as a foster child when he was just four days old, and as he grew, his physical and mental differences emerged. He’s had many diagnoses, from mental retardation and autism to severe ADHD.

Now 30, he has a job and lives in a group home in Charles City. Terrill says Adam’s story is told in a frank, realistic way, infused with the humor — some of it politically incorrect — that helped his family deal with his challenges.

The film took about 10 years and $50,000 to make, with lots of “freebies” and favors from friends in the industry. It also includes footage from the one-woman show about Adam’s life, starring sister Autumn, who was especially close to him growing up.

Kurcz also hopes “Big Time” will be inspirational, as it shows not only the struggles of starting a small business, but of seeing it through a recession.

She took a leap of faith seven years ago and jumped from TV production to fashion design. She had an instant hit with her line of handbags that would light up inside, making it easier to find keys and other items. But the recession hit and nearly ended it all. She managed to weather the storm and has even expanded her Solas line.

Other successful business owners join Kurcz in offering advice to budding entrepreneurs through the documentary. And like Terrill, Kurcz used donated time and equipment to shave film production costs from about $100,000 to $30,000.

“We’ve gotten away from the idea that as individuals we have the power to make things happen for us,” Kurcz says. “America is a great place of opportunity, but it’s up to us to take ahold of that opportunity and turn it into something.”

— Diana Nollen

Theatre Review by Warren Hoffman

No, Gork!:The Retard Always Wins!, the funny and moving play with an exclamation point, is neither a musical nor a combination of the words “geek” and “dork.” The title is actually one of the many names, some affectionate, others not, including “retard” and “peckerhead,” which are used to refer to Adam Terrill, the autistic and mentally disabled brother of Autumn Terrill, the writer and performer of Gork!. Hollywood movies which often tend to romanticize the lives of mentally disabled individuals such as I Am Sam and Rain Man aside, Autumn Terrill, through the use of video clips and anecdotes, reveals the unique, complex, funny, and frustrating person that is her brother Adam.

Unlike the “soft lens” used by McDonalds in their commercials for the Special Olympics, which Terrill complains smoothes over the nuances and individual personality traits of the mentally disabled community, Terrill’s play shows warts and all. Adam is a loud, overweight redhead with a passion for the rock band Kiss, a love of pop songs, and a habit of calling into talk-radio shows to discuss just about anything that comes into his overly stimulated mind. But it’s just not Adam who’s a wild handful. Terrill’s dysfunctional parents, despite their love for their five children, are bickering enemies who continually insult each other, despite having been married for thirty-plus years. Their fights only add to Adams’s antics and become the source of much amusement, particularly when we learn that Mr. Terrill has nicknamed his wife “Cracky” in reference to her “posterior” and has the habit of pulling his wife’s pants down in the kitchen while she does the dishes.

With such crazy, but true source material, Terrill’s play often feels more like a circus than a family drama. Just take the scene in which Terrill finds herself trapped in a car on a family vacation to Mt. Rushmore when the car runs out of gas in the middle of nowhere in 107 degree heat. While the hyperactive Adam begins laughing at his parents, Terrill’s mother loses control and suddenly demands a divorce from her seemingly incompetent husband, all while shepherding her precious children out of the overheated car. Terrill is a talented actress who distinctly and effortlessly switches between impersonating her various family members and even takes on the guises of her other brothers and sisters, making one think that there is actually a cast of seven on the stage with her.

Terrill’s major triumph, though, is the way in which she impersonates her autistic brother Adam. Capturing his loud voice, his penchant for off-color expressions, and his love for marching band flag waving, Terrill reveals a multi-dimensional, often hysterically funny portrait of an autistic individual, a picture that the media, let alone theater, has been slow to depict. Terrill’s take on Adam is never insulting or demeaning, but rather she shows him to be an imaginative, exciting young man who can be a handful at times. Indeed, Gork! attempts to give a platform to what is essentially a community without a voice, a fact that might seem surprising after we see how loud and vibrant a single autistic child can be.

Gork! is sharply directed by Dean Strober who finds a rhythm that balances Terrill’s anecdotes and character impersonations alongside video clips of Adam (with video editing provided by Elissa Zazerra). Though at times these video clips make the show feel more like a documentary (as a matter of fact, Terrill and company are turning this material into a film project), the video helps round out the character of Adam and gives him a voice alongside his sister’s stories and recreated scenes. Part of the play’ s success is that it transcends a traditional narrative framework and is as much about Terrill herself and her attempt to understand brother as it is about Adam and his life.

Gork!, with its emphasis on autism, might not sound like the sort of play that would make for good entertainment, especially in a festival overrun by satiric musicals, but Terrill’s play is a polished, enjoyable, and most significantly, important piece of theater that shows a portion of society that has too frequently been pushed to the margins.

_____________________________
New York International Fringe Festival
Gork!
Through August 29
The Next Stage, 312 West 11th Street
Schedule and Tickets: 212.279.4488

Irrepressible Goofball But, Please, Not a Victim ‘Gork! The Retard Always Wins’

Next Stage

When Autumn Terrill calls her developmentally disabled brother a retard in her new solo show, “Gork! The Retard Always Wins,” some of the more politically correct audience members might feel a little uncomfortable, but that of course is precisely the point.

For much of her lovingly crafted and occasionally indulgent performance piece, Ms. Terrill, a good-humored Midwestern blonde, offers a joking portrait of her brother that uses humor to demystify the disabled. She can’t stand the sentimental treatment of the mentally ill that we’ve come to expect from Hollywood or a television movie of the week. Through a series of cute anecdotes and precise physical and vocal tics, a vivid picture of Adam emerges as a confident and irrepressible goofball who refuses to see himself as a victim.

In between stories of family spats, she performs gently satirical scenes of a stuffy psychiatrist trying to diagnose what’s wrong with Adam. The whole show has the tone of a late-night bull session in the family den. Ms. Terrill even shows home videos, which will increase your appreciation of her imitation of her brother, who resembles a chubbier version of the lead character in the current film “Napoleon Dynamite.” In one extended sequence, he stomps around an empty stadium twirling a flag like a drunken cheerleader.

Ms. Terrill advises us early on, “Trust me: you can laugh.”

JASON ZINOMAN

After growing up in a small town in Iowa and graduating with a Comparative Literature degree from The University of Iowa, Devon Terrill got her start in the entertainment industry with an internship through the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. She relocated to Los Angeles to begin working in TV development at Viacom Productions, first as an intern and then as an assistant to two creative executives. During this time, Devon worked on a number of comedy, drama and reality-based series as well as several TV movies. Although she found this initial stint in the industry rewarding, Devon’s curiosity and restless spirit compelled her to take advantage of her youth (and lack of possessions) and leave Hollywood for a few months of backpacking overseas. Fifteen months later, after traveling across the globe, Devon made her way back to Los Angeles.

Upon her return, she was hired to assist in the development and production of 13 episodes of the drama series JACK LONDON’S CALL OF THE WILD for Animal Planet. She also developed several reality series for Discovery’s Travel Channel. She then landed a job working for producers Ed Bates and John Morrissey on the Fox Searchlight film, KINGDOM COME. Later that year, she joined Ed Bates’ indie production company, Bates Entertainment, where she worked for three years. At the same time, Devon formed Bottoms Up Productions with her sister, Autumn, and they began filming the documentary film GORK!. As part of the documentary project, they co-created and produced the award-winning one woman stage play GORK! about their younger brother Adam. The play appeared on stage in Los Angeles and won “Best Solo Show” at the International Fringe Festival in New York City. In 2004, Devon joined the Emmy award-winning producers of HBO’s TAXICAB CONFESSIONS to develop and produce documentary films and series for their production company View Film. At View Film, she most recently produced a six-part documentary series for The Sundance Channel. GORK! is her directorial debut.