Filmmaker Erik Linthorst finds significant issues and lack of accommodation for college-age American students on the autism spectrum. At least that's the verdict in this ride-along with five young people, identified as autistic, attending the University of California/Riverside, California State/Long Beach, California State/Fullerton, and San Jacinto Community College.
Guillermo, Aniella, Jonathan, Jasmine, and Caroline all seem to meet the criteria of "high functioning" (though we later hear of their childhoods and the heroic parenting that got them talking and reacting), but attending college classes and living independently pose special challenges. Not many instructors or counselors here have special training in how to address autism; some find their autistic students among the brightest and most creative, others criticize them as disruptive in class.
Guillermo, in one moment, can be marvelously observant and witty (as when he offers a sour take on campus-living environments: "The rooms smell of depression and ramen") but must confess to making a rash verbal threat to shoot a classmate, a serious matter over which he had to be investigated.
Jonathan becomes a dedicated disciple of animation history and production, and Linthorst uses animated sequences (courtesy, no, not by Jonathan, but Brazilian cartoon-artist Daniel Bruson) to emphasize stronger points and dramatize flashbacks, a nice level of added visual interest.
Although the protagonists here earn their degrees, most find the job market a cold, uninviting place—though, of course so do non-autistic students. Some of these people we get to know and root for conclude that they have no desire to continue into graduate school or otherwise repeat the academic experience.
As things stand, autistic students must often act as their own advocates. With an assertion that the population of autistic college students is badly undercounted, this short feature deserves attention from institutional collections. Recommended. (Aud: J, H, C, P)