Let Me Be Me (Trailer)

When the Westphal family learned that their 6-year-old Kyle was on the Autism spectrum, they feared they might never develop a real connection to their child. Withdrawn and constantly wrapping himself in fabric and blankets, Kyle was retreating from the world around him.

Determined to find a way to connect, his parents embarked on an intense and radical journey which involved compassionately joining Kyle in his unique behaviors. Twenty years later, the entire family looks back at Kyle's journey with candor and humor.

Let Me Be Me reveals what happens when a boy who used fabric as his shield to hide himself grows up to become a fashion designer, forging connections with friends and family along the way.

Dan Crane, Katie Taber

DAN CRANE (Co-Director): Dan Crane is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, podcast host, author, musician, and a bit of a legend in the world of global competitive air guitar. He’s the star of the award-winning cult documentary AIR GUITAR NATION (SXSW Audience Award, 2006), and the author of “To Air is Human: One Man’s Quest to Become the World’s Greatest Air Guitarist.” Before working on documentary films, Crane spent over fifteen years as a freelance journalist writing about media and culture for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, California Sunday and many others. As a documentary filmmaker, Crane has worked with Academy Award-winning director Morgan Neville (20 FEET FROM STARDOM, WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?), Matt Tyrnauer (STUDIO 54, WHERE’S MY ROY COHN?), Wavelength Productions (FEELS GOOD MAN, SPACESHIP EARTH) and One Planet One Future. LET ME BE ME is his directorial debut.

KATIE TABER (Co-Director): Katie Taber is a documentary film and television producer and director. She produced SIEMPRE, LUIS, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Festival and is currently finishing directing STRANGER/SISTER, a documentary short about a grassroots movement of Muslim and Jewish women fighting hate in America. She senior produced INTO THE NIGHT: PORTRAITS OF LIFE AND DEATH, which aired on PBS in March 2018. Recently, she also produced the award-winning MILWAUKEE 53206, about the impact of mass incarceration on this African-American neighborhood and co-produced the Emmy-award winning documentary THE HOMESTRETCH, about the challenges faced by homeless adolescents in Chicago. Taber has worked on many films for the PBS series FRONTLINE including Life and Death in Assisted Living, Dollars and Dentists, and The Child Cases and she was a co-producer on the four-part PBS NOVA series The Fabric of the Cosmos, based on the book by Brian Greene. Taber was also a founder of the award-winning Chicago-based theater company Division 13 Productions with whom she performed, wrote and directed numerous plays. Taber lives in Sea Cliff, NY with her family.

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