TPP 098a: Tom Ropelewski Talks About His Documentaries About 2e Kids
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
42 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 7 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the purpose of Tom Ropelewski’s documentary “2e: Twice Exceptional”?
Hey there, it's Debbie. Today's episode is a special re-release of a favorite conversation from the archives. Unless you're a longtime listener of the show, there's a good chance you haven't heard this one before. And even if you have, you just might get something completely different from it this time around.
So it is about bridges, but it's more about these kids and their parents and trying to find a way to fit into their into the world. And the fact that they were graduating, they were all about to graduate, they had a story to tell, they'd hit a certain milestone And there was certain relief in the voices of their parents and a certain excitement in their voices that they had found what they're good at. They, of course, understood what they weren't good at. Everyone had told them what they weren't good at. But most of them had something that they were good at and were excited to go off into the world and test it.
Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Reber, and today I'm excited to share with you a conversation I recently had with filmmaker Tom Ropolewski. Tom is the director of the highly acclaimed documentary 2E Twice Exceptional, which came out in 2015. And he's currently wrapping up post-production on a follow-up film called 2E2, Teaching the Twice Exceptional. Tom's films center around Bridges Academy, a school for twice exceptional kids in Studio City, California, that's leading the way when it comes to meeting the educational needs of these unique learners.
In our conversation, Tom shares his story and personal why behind making these films, talks about the educational model at Bridges, describes how his films are helping to bring awareness of 2E kids to the mainstream, and gives us a sneak peek of his new film, which, along with the viewer guide, will be coming out in April of this year. Here is my conversation with Tom. I hope you enjoy it. Hey, Tom, welcome to the podcast. Hi, Debbie, how are you? I am very good. And I'm looking forward to this conversation. I've been wanting to have you on the show for a while. So thanks so much for being here.
You're welcome.
So before we get into the meat of our conversation and learning more about your films that you've made, could you tell us just a little bit about who you are, your, your backstory, and then your personal why in terms of how you got brought into this particular work with 2E?
Sure. Well, my wife and I were both for many years Hollywood screenwriters. She still is. She wrote Mrs. Doubtfire and Limitless and the new version of Hairspray and Overboard, which just had its anniversary and it's been celebrated but she was we were both comedy screenwriters and and i've written and directed for television and for movies um and as movies became more interested in the past decade in superheroes i became less interested in that so was looking around for different ways to be creative and making films because i've always loved films i was one of those kids you know as a teenager who was making films in eight millimeter with my friends in the backyard and um So I always wanted to be a filmmaker of some sort.
But lately, over the past 15 years or so, I've been less enamored with the Hollywood industry. And my wife and I have made enough ill-gotten gains that I could sort of make other kinds of film. The first one I did was... about my wife's family, which is kind of a strange thing to do. Why would you make something about your father-in-law as the star? But his parents were two American artists. One was Dorothea Lange, who was a famous American photographer in the Depression, and his father was a Southwestern painter named Maynard Dixon. And during the Depression, when they couldn't afford a A studio for him and a studio for her and a home. They got rid of the home and put the kids in foster care off and on for seven years.
And the movie was about not about these great artists, which you could argue that they're particularly Dorothea Lange, who who's one of whose photographed migrant mother is probably the most iconic in American history.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the purpose of Tom Ropelewski’s documentary “2e: Twice Exceptional”?
0:00–6:51
2
How did Tom’s career in Hollywood lead him to make a film about twice‑exceptional students?
6:51–14:50
3
What is Bridges Academy and how does its educational model support 2e learners?
14:50–22:51
4
How have teachers at Bridges adapted class schedules and teaching methods for 2e kids?
22:51–30:00
5
What impact has the first documentary had on awareness and policy for twice‑exceptional children?
30:00–36:24
6
Why does Tom emphasize a strengths‑based approach rather than focusing on deficits?
36:24–38:44
7
What new insights and content will the follow‑up film “2e2: Teaching the Twice Exceptional” provide?
38:44–41:25
8
How can parents and educators access resources and stay updated on 2e education?
41:25–42:00
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids