Emelia plays to packed house at San Francisco International

Emelia played to a packed audience of over 500 kids at the San Francisco International this week. The huge AMC theater spilled over into the balcony section. Afterwards I was swarmed by little kids asking me to autograph their Emelia postcards (I don't know about you but no one has ever asked me for my autograph before so I was quite tickled)

Yesterday as a followup I visited a middle school class in Oakland of kids with Asperger's Syndrome and spoke to them about Emelia's and their struggles with fitting in. The following is a write up by Kristin Cato the Filmmaker Liaison for the Schools at the Festival program of the San Francisco International Film Festival:

NEVER TOO YOUNG TO BE GOTH

A day after the festival, the Education Department was still busy taking filmmakers to schools. Derek Flood, director of the computer animated "Emelia: The Five-Year-Old Goth Girl" spoke to twelve kids in the Aspergers Syndrome Inclusion Program at Montera Middle School in East
Oakland. Evidently, Emelia is not the only one who feels left out. The boys and girls in the program recanted horrors experienced in the playground, which Flood likened to the site of a nuclear holocaust. One boy mentioned he had no friends during the entire year of third grade. Another recalled his elementary school days of remaining in the classroom during recess, and when he did go out, peforming endless numbers of somersaults by himself in the grass. Patiently listening to their fears of having to conform, Flood offered a profound suggestion: "Well, perhaps you can be different...but also be a part of the world." Which is what Emelia learns to do in Flood's tender fable about growing up different.