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Keri Bowers: Maverick Author, World Renowned Speaker and Acclaimed Documentary Filmmaker Sheds Light on the Crucial Issue of Special Needs Children, Offering Creative, Hopeful Strategies for Coping Parents

Posted on: Friday, 19 September 2008, 21:00 CDT

It's hard to fathom that a rock star could literally motivate anyone to change the world and become the country's premiere advocate for an issue as crucial as special needs children. Yet maverick author, globally renowned speaker and critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker Keri Bowers says that it was Nikki Sixx from the heavy metal band Motley Crue who inadvertently sparked the passion which has defined her life (and impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of others) for the past 19 years.

From the mid-80s to late 90s, Bowers, the single mom of an autistic son (Taylor Cross), was working as a paralegal for a lawyer who worked with bands and musical talent like the Crue, KISS, Blind Melon, Graham Nash and celebs like Pamela Anderson. Sixx called her, desperate to have her help him get him out of a speeding ticket. She realized that this was no way to spend her life.

In 1995, Bowers began honing her skills as a speaker and media guest. In 1998, she formed PAUSE4Kids, a successful Conejo Valley (Southern California) based non-profit organization serving children with developmental disabilities. To support her work in the non-profit sector, she worked as a wedding minister and custom painter.

Bowers currently divides her time between a busy schedule of global speaking engagements and filmmaking. When she's not traveling with Taylor and her younger son Jace to speak all around the U.S. and abroad everywhere from Okinawa to London to Holland, she is running her company Normal Films (www.normalfilms.com). Over the past few years, she has shot three critically acclaimed, soul-stirring documentaries. Embodying the guiding inspiration behind Normal Films, "Possibilities, Disabilities and the ARTS," her latest project--due for release October 29--"ARTS," which shows how activities and passions like painting, filming, photography, drama, writing, and dance help autistic and other special needs children and adults connect with the world in meaningful ways and, in most cases, develop significant social and life skills. Its tagline is "Possibilities, Disabilities and the ARTS."

Source: Business Wire

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