The film The Kids Aren’t Alright gives us an inside look at what it is like to suffer from a disability and get unwanted and unhelpful assistance. The film centers the story of a telethon created by Jerry Lewis and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) that is meant to raise money and donations to help look for a cure to this condition. The film highlights that this telethon is counterproductive. The telethon is created to get people to pity and feel bad for people with Muscular Dystrophy, to guilt them into donating. Jerry Lewis and the MDA paint this unrealistic picture that people with this condition are suffering, that they are not able to live life to the fullest. That these people desire a cure for their condition, as if it is a requirement to live a full life. Jerry’s Orphans challenge this perception that Jerry Lewis and the MDA has created. They bring to light the fact that they can live happy lives full of love, happiness, and fulfillment and they are not looking for anyone’s pity.

The rhetor in this documentary is the creator, Mike Ervin, and his goal with this film is to bring to light the misconceptions and truths of living with Muscular Dystrophy. Ervin establishes his personal authority by speaking about his personal experience as someone with Muscular Dystrophy, he gets people to empathize with him by sharing personal stories of discrimination and hardships he has faced while bringing to light a corrupt system and organization. Him, and the rest of Jerry’s Orphans, go about trying to accomplish this by leading non violent protests during these telethons, handing out pamphlets, making phone calls to people in power, and simply educating people on what it is to be a person with this disability and what we can do to actually help them.

I give this film a four out of five stars. I think the film did a great job highlighting the voices of those with Muscle Dystrophy and explaining what is offensive, disrespectful, and ignorant about Jerry Lewis’s yearly telethon. It did a wonderful job depicting the actions and success but also the obstacles that Jerry’s Orphans have experienced and taken. The one thing I wish the film did was tell the viewer how to be of assistance. By watching the film I am know educated and enlightened on these people’s struggle and experience but the film does not tell me how to take action or in what way they would like us to help them with their cause.