Digital Press Kit

Title: Picturing Aphasia
Director: Mores McWreath
TRT: 30 minutes
Available Formats: DVD NTSC (all regions), DVD PAL (all regions), VHS, Mini DV
Completed: October 2005

3-line synopsis:

Aphasia is a devastating neurological condition that can destroy a person’s ability to communicate forever. In an exploration of the boundary between visual and non-visual language, four people recall their experiences living with aphasia while their stories are interpreted into a sequence of drawings.

125-word synopsis:

       An estimated one million people in the United States have aphasia, but most people have never heard of it. Aphasia literally means a loss of speech, but more devastatingly, it is also a loss of language comprehension. Every person’s brain is unique, and so are the language disabilities a person could develop from damage.
       Picturing Aphasia is designed to raise awareness and understanding for aphasia and as a therapeutic device for aphasiacs, as well as an experiment in communication. The director intended to give each person interviewed a forum to communicate with people who have aphasia by presenting a sequence of drawings that “translates” the stories that are being told. The drawings created to interpret each person’s statements were designed to help bridge the gap between hearing, seeing, and comprehending..

250 word Synopsis:

       An estimated one million people in the United States have aphasia, but most people have never heard of it. Aphasia is a communication condition caused by damage to the language areas of the brain. This damage can come from a traumatic brain injury or a stroke. There is no cure for aphasia but there is rehabilitation.
       Every person's brain is unique, and so are the language disabilities a person could develop from damage. Aphasia can affect both comprehension and production of spoken and written language. Every person with aphasia has a different level of comprehension and production. Aphasia does not affect a person's intelligence in any way. Their brain function has not been altered beyond their language ability.
       Picturing Aphasia is designed to function both as a way to raise awareness and understanding for aphasia and as a therapeutic device for people with aphasia. The idea was to give each person in the interview a forum to communicate with people who have aphasia and people who do not. It is an experiment in communication. Visual symbols are by no means a universal form of communication. The drawings created to interpret each personís statements were designed to help bridge the gap between hearing, seeing, and comprehending. The images are to act as an aid in the understanding of the spoken language.
       The goal of Picturing Aphasia is to allow people who have just developed aphasia an opportunity to understand that rehabilitation is not only possible but likely.

Quotes from Picturing Aphasia

Full Cast and Crew Credits

Directors Bio:

Jeremy Mores McWreath was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, USA. After earning a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, he spent time working as a professional video editor in New York City. He then spent time abroad working with children as an English language instructor in Seoul, South Korea. After his time in Korea, he moved to Los Angeles and earned his Master's Degree in Fine Art at the University of Southern California Roski School of Fine Arts. In 2008 he moved back to New York and attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program and began teaching video classes to undergraduate students at the Cooper Union. He has won several awards including both the undergraduate and post-undergraduate Benjamin Menschel Fellowship for Creative Inquiry, the Robert Breer Film and Video Award, and a two year full tuition teaching fellowship at USC. He has presented his work at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and The Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at the NYU Medical Center.
To view an extended biography click here.

click for larger image