Late in filmmaker Jerry Rothwell’s powerful new autism documentary, twentysomething Ben uses a pointer with a letter board to communicate. What the viewer sees and hears is Ben saying the letter “s” over and over. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the screen, Ben’s message is spelled out: “I think we can change the conversation around autism by being part of the conversation.”
The gap between what people perceive and the inner reality of autistic individuals is the main theme of The Reason I Jump, which is inspired by the titular 2007 book by Naoki Higashida (who is non-verbal autistic), written when he was 13. Novelist David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, Utopia Avenue) translated Higashida’s memoir together with his wife Keiko Mitchell (the couple has an autistic son), and he talks here about how the young author opened his eyes to the difficulties that autistic individuals face in trying to communicate with the outside world.
Rothwell follows five autistic young adults to offer an intimate portrait of life with autism: Amrit (India), who illustrates her daily experiences in excellent artwork that eventually earns her a solo gallery show; Joss (England), who struggles with acute anxiety and is mysteriously drawn to green electricity boxes; Ben and Emma (United States), whose friendship grew out of the frustration experienced by their respective parents while struggling to find help for their children; and Jesstina (Africa), who faces local superstitions that peg her as a devil or witch.
Rothwell excels at immersing viewers in the chaotic inner world of autism, amplifying sounds and zeroing in on details of objects (the latter to mimic how autism forces the mind to build a whole out of parts as opposed to how people in general often take in an entire object first and then notice individual aspects). Most haunting are the narrated words of Higashida—portrayed here by a Japanese boy in brief vignettes—who at one point addresses a key aspect of autism: “Exactly what the next moment has in store never stops being a big, big worry.”
Enlightening and empathetic, The Reason I Jump joins a stellar group of excellent autism documentaries that include Autism: The Musical (VL-7/08), How to Dance in Ohio (VL-9/16), Autism in Love (VL-5/16), and Deej (VL-2/18). Extras include an interview and separate film festival Q&A with director Jerry Rothwell. Highly recommended.