WILLOWBROOK

When Willowbrook State School opened, it promised an idyllic refuge for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Instead, for decades, thousands of children and adults were hidden from society inside an overcrowded institution defined by neglect, abuse and inhumane conditions. When the horrors within the Staten Island facility were exposed to the nation in 1972, the resulting outrage helped ignite a historic movement to close large institutions and secure the right of people with disabilities to live, learn and work within their communities.

More than fifty years later, those hard-won protections are under renewed threat. The Trump administration has promoted involuntary commitment, moved to reduce barriers to institutionalization and challenged the federal government's obligation to provide services in integrated community settings. Through Willowbrook's survivors, families and advocates, the documentary connects this buried history to an urgent contemporary question: Is America preparing to repeat it?

Daniel Shafer is producing with veteran documentary producer Josh Green and renowned mental health administrators Elizabeth Jones and Diane Buglioli.