A Disabled Boy Creates a Fantasy World to Escape His Reality in Short Film JAMES

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I’ve got an incredible, must watch short film for you to watch today called "James." It centers on a young boy who has a disability that limits him. One top of that he has a distressed family life and he’s being bullied at school. To help him cope with this hard life that he’s been dealt, he creates a sci-fi and fantasy world in his mind to escape and also try to heal his fractured family and face his tormentors at school. Here’s the full story description:

James is the story of an 11-year-old by with a degenerative bone disease called, Legg-Perthes Disease. Like most degenerative bone diseases, Legg-Perthes is expensive to treat and especially when one of your parents has lost her job and the other has no health insurance.

It's also bad news if you want to blend in at school or potentially avoid bullying because you have to wear obtrusive leg braces as part of the treatment. 

The disease does provide James with a lot of time alone to imagine and create a world for himself. A world he thinks can solve the problems of his family. A world where his braces become battle armor and his action figures talk back to him. And he fights aliens...and can fly into space. 

The short was directed by Kyle McCauley back in 2012. It was completed over the course of 2+ years on mornings, nights, weekends, and maybe some "down time" at work. The end result is fantastically well made and honest story about dealing with the hardships of life, and it’s told in a really cool way. I hope you enjoy it. 

James is about a boy growing up with a disability and the world he creates around it to heal his fractured family and face his tormentors at school. VFX Breakdown: https://vimeo.com/106513674 More details on the entire post production here; complete with inane references and other potentially fun tidbits: http://www.kylemccauley.com/James-Making-Of https://www.facebook.com/JamesTheMovie/ Full cast and crew: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4287232/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1 Shot in July 2012, with VFX completed over 2+ years on mornings, nights, weekends and maybe some "down time" at work. Many thanks to a talented pool of friends for their thoughtful input and hard work and an array of tutorials and constant inspiration on Vimeo. Thank you for watching!