Mockingbird Don't Sing
Mockingbird Don't Sing is an American independent film which is based on the true story of Genie, the modern-day wild child (see feral child). The film is told from the point of view of Dr. Susan Curtiss (whose fictitious name is Sandra Tannen), a professor of linguistics at UCLA. Although the film is based on a true story, all of the names are fictitious for legal reasons. The name "Genie" has been changed to "Katie". The film was released to US audiences on May 4, 2001.
The film begins in the year of 1970. Katie Standon (Tarra Steele), a girl who has been imprisoned in her room (and without any human contact) since the age of one, is now 13 years old. Her mother, Louise (who has cataracts; Kim Darby), has taken enough abuse from her domineering husband Wes (Jack Betts); she now has enough courage to desert him after he leaves the house. She gets her son, Billy (a few years older than Katie; Michael Azria), to help her and Katie escape their home. Louise and Katie come into a welfare office to seek benefits for the blind. A social worker sees them and notices something peculiar about Katie. Katie is taken to Childrens Hospital for malnutrition and rehabilitation, and Louise and Wes find themselves being arrested for "what authories are calling the worst case of child abuse they've ever seen". Shortly before his trial is supposed to begin, Wes kills himself. A group of doctors and psycholinguistics and researchers get together to form the "Katie Team". Everyone wants to do everything they can to help Katie, but many of them try in vain just to go down in history with her. The only person who is really concerned about Katie's welfare is Sandra Tannen (a graduate student at UCLA; Melissa Errico). Judy Bingham (Sean Young), a special-education teacher at the hospital, is very talented, but is very vain ("This girl's gonna make me famous. I'm gonna be the next Annie Sullivan"). After being denied custody of Katie, Judy becomes very bitter toward everyone else in the Katie Team and harasses them. Katie comes to live with Dr. Norman Glazer (who works at Childrens Hospital; Joe Regalbuto) and his family, where she stays for four years. His family help Katie become a civilized human being. Although Katie shows outstanding progress in some things (such as learning vocabulary words and sign language, preparing hygiene, showing off anger, and certain other activities), she never really learns grammatical structure. Meanwhile, Louise has surgery to remove her cataracts and visits Katie off and on. When Katie becomes 18, the funding for Katie's help is cut off, and Katie returns to Louise's care. Soon, it comes to the point where Louise doesn't know how to handle Katie herself, and Katie gets placed in another foster home. One day, Katie is punished for eating her own vomit, and responds by never eating or speaking. Sandra does all that she can to make sure that Katie is handled in the proper way and even has Norman help her. Katie is taken back to Childrens Hospital, and Sandra is suggested by social services to have Katie live with her. Before any decisions are made about this, Louise takes Katie out of the hospital and puts her in another foster home. Louise even threatens to take legal action on Sandra if Sandra ever sees Katie again. Sandra finally asks Louise why Katie was placed in extreme isolation before her discovery. Louise tells the entire story...