ABOUT

About the film

Based on the bestselling book by Naoki Higashida, THE REASON I JUMP is an immersive cinematic exploration of neurodiversity through the experiences of nonspeaking autistic people from around the world. The film blends Higashida’s revelatory descriptions of his autism, written when he was just 13, with intimate portraits of five remarkable young people. It opens a window into an intense and overwhelming, but often joyful, sensory universe, a sensually rich tapestry that leads us to Naoki’s core message: not being able to speak does not mean there is nothing to say.

WATCH TRAILER

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

Naoki Higashida’s descriptions of a world without speech provoke us to think differently about autism. For most of history, nonspeaking autistic people have been considered less than human: ostracized by communities, banished to institutions, even in some ages and places, killed en masse. Stigma is still a feature of most autistic people’s lives.

But Naoki’s evocative descriptions of the maelstrom of thoughts, feelings, impulses and memories which affect his every actions lead us, as David Mitchell writes in his introduction to The Reason I Jump, to understand that “his is a mind as curious, subtle and complex as any.” Naoki debunks the ideas often held about the autistic spectrum – that at one end there are geniuses and the other fools. Instead he describes a magnificent constellation of different ways of experiencing reality, which for the most part, are filtered out by the neurotypical world.

For a filmmaker, this offers an opportunity to use the full potential of cinema to evoke these intense sensory worlds in which meaning is made through sounds, pictures and associations, as well as words. While no film can replicate human experience, My hope is that THE REASON I JUMP can encourage an audience into thinking about autism from the inside, recognizing other ways of sensing the world, at times beautiful and at times disorientating. I hope the film takes audiences on a journey through different ways of seeing, leaving a strong sense of how the world needs to change to become fully inclusive.

– JERRY ROTHWELL, 2020

The Contributors

Amrit Khurana

Noida, India

Joss Dear
Broadstairs, UK

Ben McGann
Arlington, VA, USA

Emma Budway
Arlington, VA, USA

Jestina Penn Timity
Freetown, Sierra Leone

Jim Fujiwara

London, UK

MEET THE FILM TEAM

Director
Jerry Rothwell

Jerry Rothwell is a filmmaker whose previous work includes the award-winning feature documentaries: How To Change The World, about the founders of Greenpeace; Sour Grapes (co-directed with Reuben Atlas) a film about a wine counterfeiter; School In The Cloud, about radical educationalist, Sugata Mitra; Town of Runners, about two girls in an Ethiopian village who aspire to be athletes; Donor Unknown, about a sperm donor and his many offspring; Heavy Load, about a group of people with learning disabilities who form a punk band, and Deep Water (co-directed with Louise Osmond), about Donald Crowhurst’s ill-fated voyage in the 1968 round the world yacht race. His work has won numerous accolades including two Grierson Awards, an Audience Award and Special Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival, an RTS Award, the IDA Pare Lorentz Award and a BAFTA nomination.

Producer
Jeremy Dear

Jeremy started his career at the BBC in documentaries. He has created dozens of factual shows for a wide range of networks on both sides of the Atlantic, including the BBC, Discovery, Nat Geo, Science Channel, PBS, History, Channel 4, SKY and many others. Past work includes the Emmy-nominated Wave That Shook The World (WGBH/C4), Growing Children (BBC), Lawless Oceans (National Geographic) and the controversial series Christianity: A History (C4). He is married to co-producer Stevie Lee. The couple have a non-verbal autistic son, Joss, who spends a lot of time on their large trampoline.

Producer
Stevie Lee

Stevie began her career as a literary agent, before becoming a script editor and Head of Development at Contagious Films. In 2007 she launched her own company Runaway Fridge. She produced the critically acclaimed Frank for Film 4, the BFI and Irish Film Board. The film stars Michael Fassbender and received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. She also recently executive produced The Dog Thrower, written and directed by Jon Ronson and starring Matthew Perry, for Sky and The Making Of A Lady with Jo Lumley for ITV.

Producer
Al Morrow

Al is an award winning producer and Head of Documentary at MetFilm Production. Her latest film Last Breath (Creative Scotland, BBC Scotland, Arte) will be released in UK cinemas in April 2019. Previous films include Sour Grapes directed by Jerry Rothwell and Reuben Atlas for Netflix, Arte and VPRO, and Jerry Rothwell’s How To Change The World and School in the Cloud. How To Change The World (Sky Atlantic/ BFI/Impact Partners/CTV) won the Grierson Award for Best International Documentary on a Contemporary Theme and premiered as a Day One film at the Sundance Film Festival. Al has also produced Jeanie Finlay’s Pantomime (BBC Storyville) and The Great Hip Hop Hoax (BBC/ Creative Scotland); Sarah Gavron’s Village At The End Of The World which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival; Jerry Rothwell’s Town of Runners (ITVS/Britdoc C4) which premiered at Tribeca; the Grierson nominated films Donor Unknown (More4/ITVS/ Arte) and Men Who Swim (BBC Storyville/Arte/SVT/VPRO); Heavy Load (BBC Storyville, IFCtv, ITVS); and Deep Water (Pathe/UKFC/FilmFour) winner of the Grierson Award for Best Cinema Documentary.

Based on the book by NAOKI HIGASHIDA translated by DAVID MITCHELL and K.A. YOSHIDA
Sound Recordist SARA DE OLIVEIRA Sound Designer NICK RYAN
Director of Photography RUBEN WOODIN DECHAMPS
Composer NAINITA DESAI Editor DAVID CHARAP
Co-Producer SAM PAYNE
Co-Executive Producer SARA EDELSON
Executive Producers
JODY ALLEN PAUL G. ALLEN ROCKY COLLINS JANNAT GARGI RUTH JOHNSTON CAROLE TOMKO
LIZZIE FRANCKE STEWART LE MARÉCHAL JONNY PERSEY PETER WEBBER

ABOUT

About the film

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

The Contributors

MEET THE FILM TEAM

Contact us