Director’s Statement

Most of us go through the world seeing and interpreting it in much the same way as everyone else around us. We are bound by societal pressures, sorted neatly into boxes, and check marked. But some people see the world so differently that they don’t fit into any of the boxes, and so to try to understand them, we often stereotype and stigmatize to make ourselves more comfortable with what we may perceive as strange or abnormal and ultimately end up misrepresenting or misinterpreting.

This misrepresentation is particularly apparent surrounding people who fall on the autism spectrum, who see the world more differently than any of us. Some may call it a disability, or a hindrance, but in many ways, they would be wrong – I believe that the things that make people different are the very same things that make them powerful, and beautiful, and crucial to the fabric of our collective being. With “Zack in Many Colors” my dedicated team and I wanted to use Zack Federbush as a vessel to foster a celebration of our differences and to inspire viewers to embrace and cherish both their own unique qualities and those of others around them.

Some may ask, and many have, “But why Zack Federbush? Why him specifically? A painter that most people have never heard of?” To them I would say that it is precisely because most people haven’t heard of him – and they should have, and hopefully will, because every life touched by Zack’s presence and story is better for it.

-William Burrell