54 min / documentary / 2010 / Poland (English subtitles)
filmmaker: Piotr Sliwowski
Downtown showcases the work of Polish photographer Oiko Petersen, who decided to feature people with Down syndrome in a high fashion photo spread.
Downtown is a small town of people with Down syndrome, where people can go when they feel bad — that is what the song says. The filmmakers accompanied the author of the photographic project and his models — young people with Down syndrome who, with the help of the photographer, stylists, and their own imagination, impersonated various characters known from the world of fairy-tales and pop culture, revealing through the stylized frames a world of dreams and a piece of truth: about themselves, about universal desires.
Sam has a passion to be a dancer, but is too shy to realize her dreams. When Peaches (her magical inner-diva-cum-drag queen) materializes on one night, Sam’s dreams transform into reality.
Daisy waits in a bar for her online date – he is late. A man offers her a drink and she mistakes him for the date who has stood her up.
Tom holds a secret in his human heart; a wing beat and a flutter, and it’s bursting to take flight in this tale of magical realism.
Lou may have Down’s Syndrome but she is more than capable of looking after herself and she longs for independence.
A teenage girl who feels left out and ignored by her peers, is inspired to do something audacious in order to get noticed.
A playful and unsentimental portrait of Rene, a young man with Down syndrome, made by his close friend Duane Graves.
Developed by EPCON