Review: The Interviewer

 Rebecca reviews "The Interviewer" for World Down Syndrome Day

March 21st was World Down Syndrome Day. This year the theme is "How Do You See Me? The theme challenges the way society looks at people with Down Syndrome and promotes the reality that people people with Down Syndrome, like all of us, are each individuals with their own dreams, aspirations and struggles. A very similar theme is explored in the short film The Interviewer, produced by Bus Stop Films.[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT9PdS9hPFs[/embed]The Interviewer is a delightful and humerous film with a powerful message. An interviewee, Thomas Harwell, is surprised when he discovers that his interviewer James (played by Gerard O'Dwyer) has Down Syndrome. An entertaining and enlightening interview brings out the best in both characters and seriously challenges Harwell's judgement of his interviewer.The interview is interrupted however by the arrival of the real interviewer, who shares a name with James and is presumably his father.The Interviewer is charming and sends a challenging message about how our culture views people with Down Syndrome.For many parents the discovery that their child has Down Syndrome can be an incredibly challenging time and this is not helped by a society which has very limited views on the contribution that people with Down Syndrome can make to society and often fails to recognise the individual abilities of each person with down Syndrome.It is incredibly important that society thinks hard about their answer to the question posed by World Down Syndrome Day 2016, "How do you see me?"