Like a video journal, "Up Syndrome" takes us into the life of Rene Moreno, a 23 year old man who has Down Syndrome. Filmmaker and UT student Duane Graves has been one of Moreno's best friends since childhood and describes his youthful desire, as the boy's neighbor, to "cheer him up" since he is "down." This youthful motivation leads to a friendship that has spanned many years. Duane and Rene made films together from almost the beginning of this friendship and as Rene grew older, and began to say to more serious things when the camera was on, Graves began to capture more and more footage of his friend.

What we end up with here is a video collage of life with Rene, his family and friends, his work, his former school, and his homelife. But paramount to all of this is his friendship with the filmmaker which has the duo taking off on many flights of fancy including visiting the Alamo, eating at Luby's, learning to drive and emulating TV programs and films. Through a weaving of moments and images, and through listening to Rene speak, we come to love and respect him as much as Graves obviously does. It's a truly remarkable love letter to a friend we have here.

But subtexturally, the film is more than just this. Rene is, in many ways, a man-child. And through these intimate glimpses into his life, we begin to see a thread of a disturbing preoccupation with guns, cops, violence and fireworks. Rene handles what appears to be a real gun and explains that he doesn't know how to use it and that it is bad and kills people. He speaks like a child who has been taught that a gun is a "bad thing," yet he handles this gun, points it and plays with it. It is quite distressing. He emulates the TV show "Cops" as Graves plays the cameraman, with a flashlight their only light in the darkness of Rene's backyard. As a child is fascinated with cartoons or fantasy films, Rene seems fascinated to the point of obsession with "Cops" and violent movies. It reminds us of the troubling and perplexing problems we face as Americans involving children and violence and guns and such. It can make one a bit uneasy to experience this part of the movie.

But, of course, it must also be said that Rene is just as obviously enamoured with Peewee Herman as he is with "Cops" and one of the most amusing moments of the film has Rene and Graves (from behind the camera) kidding each other about the one being Peewee Herman and the other being "Corky" (presumably the character with Down Syndrome from TV's "Life Goes On").

"Up Syndrome" does something else as well: It proves, yet again, that the medium is not important, the story is. The film is shot on Hi-8 video and in appearance looks very similar to someone's home movies. This is what delivers the piece it's intimacy and it's immediacy. We feel like we're glimpsing in on Rene's life through his friends eyes. And even though Graves supplements the film with some title cards and subtitles, which make it much easier to understand what Rene is saying, the film never stops feeling like a home video. This of course does not matter because we are interested in the main character, we enjoy his warmth, his sense of humor and his childlike innocence and only want to grow to know him further as the video continues.

"Up Syndrome" is a bit long and does contain a few seemingly irrelevant scenes throughout it's 82 minute running time. But the film's warmth and humor will captivate you, make you think, and open your eyes to a world rarely seen before. It's a world where a childhood friendship continues long after childhood ends for one, and instead of a playmate, the seeming elder has a lifelong look at innocence in his grasp. "Up Syndrome" consistently reminds us of the beauty of the world, it's simple pleasure, it's joyousness experienced through friendships and families. When Rene speaks, truth comes out. It's the truth of a child. It's the truth of an innocent. And it's important that we stop. And hear it.

Note:

The film contains music made by Rene as well as the music of The Raintree.

Rene and Duane are from San Antonio, TX.

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