Ellison and Reeve Do A&E Movie

Brook Ellison, an accomplished woman with a spinal cord injury, is the subject of an upcoming A&E movie, "The Brooke Ellison Story," directed by Christopher Reeve. Ellison, who was 11 years old when she sustained her injury in a 1990 car accident, uses a ventilator to breathe and a voice activated computer to write. Now 25, she has a bachelor's and master's degree from Harvard. She finished her master's thesis in public policy at the university's John F. Kennedy School of Government this spring. Her mother, Jean Ellison, attended all six years of college with her. This fall, she begins work on a Ph.D. in political psychology.

Ellison and Reeve met while serving on the board of the National Organization of Disability (NOD) based in Washington, D.C. They became friends.

The movie, shot in New Orleans, is based on the 2001 memoir Ms. Ellison co-wrote, with her mother, "Miracles Happen: One Mother, One Daughter, One Journey" (Hyperion, $22.95).

Ellison kept a journal of her filming experiences for USA Today, which did a feature article on her August 9,2004. The full article is available at www.nod.org under the "Headlines" section.