30 Years Later: Best Boy’s Legacy

Best Boy has more than passed the test of time. It remains a masterpiece, according to critics, and it continues to be shown all over the world to new audiences. As vital and inspiring today as ever, in 30 years Best Boy has been:

• Shown in more than thirty countries on television, in theatres, by organizations and schools;
• Named one of the top 10 documentary films of all time;
• Credited with creating the "first person" style of documentary filmmaking, and shown over and over again in every filmmaking studies program in the world;
• Shown to students of social work, special education, psychology and psychiatry at hundreds of undergraduate and post-graduate academic institutions; and
• Utilized by hundreds more public and private social welfare agencies for their employee in-service trainings and to show their clients, the families of the adult mentally retarded.

"Best Boy" has become a byword used in social work agencies and institutions across the country. The term has crept into the vernacular in the field of developmental disabilities to describe a disabled family member, loved by his family, whose future has not yet been appropriately secured.