Raising Faith is a story about how nine young people and their families conquer the reading difference called dyslexia. When my husband and I first learned that our daughter was dyslexic, we scoured the world for resources. We found photos of what part of the brain dyslexia “comes from,” learned all of the “fixes,” and found the names of organizations and professionals who might “diagnose” and “help” her. This was in 2003-2004. All of the content we found was cold and clinical when we wanted someone to tell us everything was going to be o.k. And then when we compared my daughter’s Wechsler Individual Achievement Test results to my husband’s results from the 1970s, we learned he was dyslexic too. This was the beginning of making the connections that would become so important in this film and passion project as we “raised” Faith.

This early experience propelled our film called “Raising Faith” and our journey as a family. As Faith’s mother and a producing collaborator with her in the production, I had the opportunity to exploring the uniqueness that made my daughter and husband tick, while becoming a better mother, partner, filmmaker and educator. In addition, Faith’s participation as a young media producer and interviewer created a comfortable, authentic and safe environment for honest discussion with our interview participants. We grew authentically closer through the filmmaking experience and this exploration has helped me understand this learning difference much more clearly. I hope you too learn from these stories.