MARLBORO – The award-winning documentary “Swim Team,” which chronicles the rise of the Jersey Hammerheads, a competitive swim team of diverse autistic teenagers who are trained with high expectations and zero pity, will be screened at the Marlboro Library, Wyncrest Road, on April 22 at 1 p.m.
The screening of the film will be followed by a discussion with cast members and filmmaker Lara Stohlman.
Stohlman said she met the McQuay family when she was searching for swimming lessons for her own children, according to a press release from the library.
“I met Mike, Maria and Mikey at the Perth Amboy YMCA and was struck by how beautifully Mikey swam. He told me then, ‘I’m not like other teenagers, I’m autistic. When I swim I feel normal.’ ”
Stohlman said she hopes “Swim Team” will “help people understand the humanity and capability of individuals on the autism spectrum. Most of the kids on the team had been ostracized and unable to participate with typical peers on a sports team. I hope this film inspires people to think of ways to be more inclusive in their communities, from school to employment to recreation.”
Stohlman also wanted “Swim Team” to be a film about the families who care for members with autism.
“In the case of the swim team families, even though the boys we focus on are teenagers and becoming adults, I could not tell their stories without their parents and vice versa. Their stories are as intertwined as their lives are.
“Parents raising children with autism often spend more time with their children because their kids need more support.
“The often intimate, hands-on parenting relationship that families raising typical children experience extends sometimes throughout the families’ lives for those caring for loved ones with autism, long after the time parents of typical kids separate from their children,” she said.
Registration for the screening of “Swim Team” is required. Call the library at 732-536-9406 to reserve a seat.