Joey Travolta brings Hollywood to Jacksonville for children with autism

Joey Travolta, longtime film producer, director, and writer and brother of famed actor John Travolta, led his third annual HEAL Foundation film camp for children with autism in Jacksonville. After his help on a student film about autism expanded to him producing the 2006 documentary Normal People Scare Me, Travolta contrived the idea for the film camp and began programs for people with disabilities. This year's film camp began June 21 and featured Duval and St. Johns County children from ages 10 to 17, thirty of them having autism and the remaining twenty being their siblings and friends.

The goal of the two-week camp is to produce three films to assemble into a movie titled Friday Night After The Movies. "We take them through all the steps of filmmaking from writing to editing to using the camera. They do it all," Travolta said. "It is not just a camp. It is like a a provocation and social skills program too." The camp, sponsored by FilmLab Productions and MDI Holdings, allows children with autism, each nominated by a teacher or therapist, the chance to encounter Hollywood professionals and to experience a creative outlet.

To read the full article on Travolta's film camp, now also featured in Quick Bits, please visit the Florida Times-Union.