​​​A feature documentary about raising children with Down syndrome and autism, and being transformed by them.

 

Society and the medical establishment told them their sons had no potential. Five Massachusetts mothers refused to believe this. Through intimate, first-hand storytelling, RAISING US takes them back to the moments that defined them: the uncertainty, the fear, the fierce love, and private battles, which sometimes became public ones. Their stories trace a cultural shift they helped force into being.

 

RAISING US is about what it takes to raise a child for a lifetime, to push systems that resist change, and to protect progress that was never guaranteed.

 

Directed by Sandi Johnson

Produced by Jen Plante Johnson & Sandi Johnson