Deej and burdens

I have been thinking a lot about how toward the end of the film, Deej tells the viewer that Rooy wants to show how Deej has put a lot of strain on his family. It is true that his parents basially uprooted their entire lives so Deej could go to the college of his choice, but in nearly every one of their interviews they made it clear that it was their decicision too and that they genuinely want to do everything they can to support their son. Ultimately, the film does more to document the way Deej was able to get to where he did and the important people in his life than it does to depict Deej as a burden. I wonder if both Deej and Rooy saw their work coming together in the way that it did. Deej reveals that, like any filmmaker, Rooy had a plan of what he wanted to present, and that Deej himself did what he could to prevent that from being a focus of the final cut. That being said, Rooy was still a producer and director so it is safe to say he still had a say in what went into the film and there were definitely some moments when it was difficult not to consider the enourmous amount of effort the Savareses put in to get Deej to Oberlin. I think the moment Deej tells the viewer the ongoing dialog between Rooy and himself was the most revealing part of the film. The burden narrative is a common trope in the world of disability and this comment brings the viewer's attention to it both as an undercurrent of the film and more broadly in thinking about disability.