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VIDEO GALLERY – An Oska Bright Selection

To coincide with the UK release of The Reason I Jump, we’re showcasing the work of six neurodiverse and autistic filmmakers on this website, in collaboration with PictureHouse Cinemas, MetFilm Production and Oska Bright Film Festival. The selection was curated by Matthew Hellet, Head Programmer Oska Bright and celebrates some old and some new festival favourites.

A Safe Place to Rest

SYNOPSIS
Being on the lookout, ever shifting, awake to danger. Moments of abandon letting go and enjoying the sensations of the forest, finally resting and being held by the forest. One of the Four Solos in the Wild series — performers with learning disabilities present their own creative response to the beautiful wild woods of Pembrokeshire, Wales in the form of four short solos.

FILMMAKER, Graham Busby, Arty Party
Arty Party is a charity based in Shropshire, which supports and empowers learning disabled adults to explore, express and celebrate their creativity. Arty Party wishes to make powerful and high quality art as a group and to support individual artists to make their own work and share it with the public. Four Solos in the Wild is a project which was created to support Arty Party members in experiencing the environment, working together as a community, and to create four new solo works for film. 

Jessica

SYNOPSIS
Jessica Edwards is a true creative with a unique style of her own and the confidence to show her creations to the world. Jess has been living in a community-based assisted living community for adults with mixed ability since 2005. Their support workers care for them and guide them to make the right decisions for themselves, supporting community interaction and each  individual need.

FILMMAKERS, Kirsty Griffin & Viv Kernick
Viv and Kirsty  have developed a collaborative style that draws on their complementary skills which have been accrued over decades of working in the film and television industry and the nonprofit sector. Their film Wayne was their first funded short documentary as part of the first Loading Docs initiative in 2014. Based on this film they received funding from NZ on Air’s Digital Media Fund to produce a further 8 films within the same supported community Amy Street web series (Jessica is part of this series), which has won best factual series in many web festivals around the world, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Melbourne web festival.

Look for Me

SYNOPSIS
An autistic child’s love of drawing helps them discover an unexpected kindred spirit. Inspired after my own diagnosis of Autism in 2017.

FILMMAKER, Miriam Fox
Miriam Fox is an award-winning British animator and filmmaker. Graduate of UCA Farnham, she is currently studying an MA in Directing Animation at the National Film and Television School. Miriam specialises in 2D hand drawn and digital techniques, plus strong character animation. She has created work for charity organisations, graduate films, the London International Animation Festival, and has been a blogger for Mind, the mental health charity.

Moviegoer

SYNOPSIS
A poignant study on how noise pollution affects us, and how an art space such as cinema can offer respite for everyday urban city life. A Biggerhouse Film production for 104 Films.

FILMMAKER, Stuart Quinn
Stuart Quinn is a writer and director in the UK. He explores stories from the characters subjective point of view so the audience can see the world through their eyes. His most recent short “Beautiful Bear” deals with a young man with autism and seeing the world from his point of view. This summer he will make his new short which is a coming of age story coming of age story about space exploration and family.

The Mask

SYNOPSIS
We follow Sharif on his journey along a coastal footpath to the theatre of a neighbouring town. Along the way he talks about himself and what it means to be autistic, while all the time wearing his favourite celebrity mask.

FILMMAKER, Sharif Persaud
Sharif Persaud (b. 1993) is an artist based in Hastings. His practice has been developed in collaboration with Project Art Works, where he has been a key contributor. He wrote and directed The Mask (2017), an Ignition Random Acts Network Centre Commissioned film, in collaboration with Tim Corrigan, Creative Director at Project Art Works, a collective of neurodiverse artists and makers. The Mask won Best Story at the Oska Bright Film Festival in 2017, and has been shown at screenings across the world including FilmBath UK, the Other Film Festival in Melbourne, Electric Palace in Hastings, and the Discover Film Awards festival in London. It has also featured in a British Film Institute Collection Disabled Britain on Film.

Just Me

SYNOPSIS
A short film about the director in which he explores gender identity, disability and other themes through his own narrative.

FILMMAKER, Mattie Kennedy
Mattie Kennedy is an artist, filmmaker and writer living and working in Glasgow, they have so far made four short films. The most recent film being ‘Enid & Valerie’ in 2018 in collaboration with animator Vitoria Bastos, it was screened at last year’s edition of Oska Bright. They also gave the Keynote speech at Oska Bright 2017, launching the inaugural ‘Queer Freedom’ strand, a strand created by Head Programmer Matthew Hellett. Their films have been screened at film festivals such as Scottish Queer International Film Festival, Wotever DIY Film Festival and others.

ABOUT OSKA BRIGHT
Oska Bright Film Festival is the world’s leading festival for films made by or featuring people with learning disabilities or autism. 

With less than 5% of disabled people working in the UK film industry, Oska Bright Film Festival is driven to make change happen. Working internationally with industry partners and funded by the BFI, our team produces the BAFTA qualifying Oska Bright Film Festival, promotes accessible screenings, runs training for venues and develops skills for aspiring filmmakers. Oska Bright Film Festival puts people with learning disabilities or autism where they should be, on the big screen. 

Oska Bright is currently open for submissions for their next festival. 

ABOUT MATTHEW HELLETT
Matthew Hellett is Oska Bright’s Lead Programmer, a role he took on after being part of the prestigious Guiding Lights scheme in 17/18, the UK film industry’s leading mentoring programme. Matthew was mentored by Emma Smart, programmer at BFI Flare Festival. As part of this role he introduced a new strand in to the festival, ‘Queer Freedom’.

Advocacy & Education

The Self-Advocacy Workbook was created in partnership with autistic people, featuring writing by autistic people themselves. It includes self-advocacy strategies, peer-to-peer advice, and resources, such as links to organizations, social networks and educational tools to equip individuals, particularly those who are non or minimally speaking, and their families and loved ones, with tools to help them advocate for themselves and their needs.

The Presume Competence Community Handbook supports professionals working with autistic populations such as medical support staff, social-workers, and others, as well as interested community groups like schools or faith communities, to host a screening of the film. The guide includes tips and best practices for hosting inclusive screenings, background and context about the film and the people in it, discussion prompts, suggested engagement activities for the various audiences, and research and resources for further learning.

ADVOCACY AND EDUCATION VIDEO

Video clips for the Community Handbook will become available after the film’s release in different territories. You can see that video gallery here, or access videos directly from the Handbook. Note that you may have to set up a Vimeo account to access the clips, but that this also is free.

Resources

This is a list of resources collected during the making of the film and from the workbook advisors. It is not intended to be a comprehensive list, but is a starting point for learning more:

Blogs, Networks, and Educational Websites

A4A Ontario (Canada)

Access To Work (UK) 

Amaze Brighton (UK)

The Art of Autism (USA)

As I Am (Ireland)

Athletes Without Limits (USA)

Auties.org

Autistic Allies (UK)

Ausome Cork (Ireland)

Autangel – growing Autistic Community (UK)

The Autism Experience Group (UK)

Autism From the Inside, Paul Isaac’s Blog (UK)

Autism Inclusivity – Advisor Emma Dalmayne’s Facebook group (UK)

The Autism Page (UK)

The Austistic Advocate

Autistic Inclusive Meets – Advisor Emma Dalmayne’s UK-based networking organization

Autistic Not Weird (UK)

Autistic Pride Reading  (UK)

Autistic Rights Group Highlands (Scotland, UK)

Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) (USA, International)

Autistic Strategies Network (South Africa)

Autistic UK – (UK) 

Autistic Women’s Network (USA)

Bradstow School (UK)

Communication FIRST (USA)

DonnaWilliams.net

The Disability Archive, Centre for Disability Studies, the University of Leeds (UK)

Fierce Autistics and Allies (USA)

Flow Observatorium Support for neuro-divergent artists (UK)

Growing Kids Therapy Center (USA)

International Association of Spelling as Communication (I-ASC)

Reyo Paddock School (Ghana)

The Right to Participate (UK) 

Scottish Autism (Scotland, UK)

SISU Hub Facebook Page  (South Africa)

SWAN Scottish Women’s Autism Network (UK)

Sierra Leone Autistic Society (Sierra Leone) 

TASH – Disability Advocacy (Based in USA, International)

Unlocking Voices – also on Facebook here.(UK)

Books and Films

I-ASC Book List for Nonspeakers 

Assimakopoulos, Lia, (2018) Life in Letters: A Book About Autism. Lia Assimakopoulus.

Barton, Michael, (2011) It’s Raining Cats and Dogs: An Autism Spectrum Guide to the Confusing World of Idioms, Metaphors, and Everyday Expressions. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

BBC, (2020) Chris Packham: Aspergers and Me, Television Documentary. 

CBeebies, (2017-2020) Pablo, TV series, available on Netflix. 

Blackburn, Ros. Autism: Ros Blackburn. 

Bogdashina, O., (2010) Autism and the Edges Of The Known World  Sensitivities, Language and Constructed Reality. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Camacho, Alfonso,  (2019). Autistic & Awesome: A Journal from the Inside. Editorial3k.com.

Dalmayne, Emma, (2016)  It’s An Autism Thing…I’ll help you understand. Stass Publications.

Grinker, Roy Richard, (2021) Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness. W.W. Norton & Company.  

Higashida, Naoki, (2013) The Reason I Jump (translated by David Mitchell and KA Yoshida). Sceptre.

Higashida. Naoki, (2017)  Fall Down 7 Times Get up 8  (translated by David Mitchell and KA Yoshida) Sceptre.

Kedar, Ido, (2012) Ido in Autismland. Ido Kedar.

Mukhopadhyay, Tito, (2008) How Can I Talk If My Lips Don’t Move? Inside My Autistic Mind. Arcade Publishing.

Mukhopadhyay, Tito, (2015) Plankton Dreams: What I Learned in Special Ed.  Open Humanities Press.

Peña, Edlyn, Ed., (2019)  Leaders Around Me: Autobiographies of Autistics who Type, Point, & Spell to Communicate. Edlyn Vallejo Peña.

Poe, Charlotte Amelia, (2019) How to Be Autistic. Myriad Editions. 

Prizant, Barry M., (2015) Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, NY.

Rowe, Alice, (2013) The Girl With the Curly Hair. Lonely Mind Books. 

Savarese, David James, (2019) “Coming to My Senses,” in Autism in Adulthood. Volume: 1, Issue 2: April 2019. Mary Ann Lierbert, Inc., Publishers.

Sesame Street, (2017) Meet Julia, Episode clip, Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Silberman, Steve, (2015) Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity.  Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House, NY.

Tino, Gregory, (2020) The Autistic Mind Finally Speaks: Letterboard Thoughts. Gregory C. Tino.

Wady, Paul, (2014) Guerilla Aspies: A Neurotypical Society Infiltration Manual. Free Autistic Press through Dark Windows Press.

Williams, D., (1996) Nobody Nowhere. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Williams, D., (1999) Somebody Somewhere. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Contact us

Press Contacts:

VULCAN PUBLICITY

Stephanie Davidson
201-704-1382
stephanie@vulcanpress.com

Stephanie Davidson
201-704-1382
stephanie@vulcanpress.com

Stephanie Davidson
201-704-1382
stephanie@vulcanpress.com

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 rich tapestry that leads us to Naoki’s core message: not being able to speak does not mean there is nothing to say.

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