Autism Through Cinema (Autism Through Cinema)

With content warnings about discussions around cannibalism, abuse, and eating disorders, Georgia, Janet and Lillian return to tackle the meaty subject of female body horror via Julia Ducournau's grisly debut, Raw. The trio reflect on associations between autism and eating, with particular focus on the processes and difficulties around misophonia, before navigating the tricky relationship of cannibalism and sexuality. There are frank discussions about how norms are undermined in the film, and how acts of masking and gender performance can resonate with autistic female experience. Georgia offers the film as an analogy for the abjection of adolescent life when identities are being formed and rejected, associating this with the turbulence of autistic social navigation.

Lillian's thoughts on Ducournau's second film Titane can be found in Plinth on the following link: https://plinth.uk.com/blogs/magazine/titane-essay-the-horror-of-the-body-in-julia-ducournau-titane

We also welcome our new editors 344 Audio, who will be working hard behind-the-scenes to take us all the way up to our 50th episode.

Many thanks for listening. And please don't be tempted to take a nibble out of your friends...

Aronofsky’s first feature film is discussed in terms of its closeness to autistic meltdown, an affect that appears rarely in film, driven by the character’s fascination with patterns, a propensity for maths as the language of the universe and a magical number. Computers feature heavily in the film, debated as either a potentially problematic alliance between autism and automatism, or possibly autistic attention to the material world and its many capacities. The film’s ending proves controversial: does it suggest that lobotomy is the only way to end suffering for Max, that there is no place in this world for neurodiversity?

Discussants: Georgia Bradburn, Janet Harbord, David Hartley, Alex Widdowson.

Email us your thoughts at cinemautism@gmail.com

We take a grisly turn this week with a foray into the violent, haunting, and dangerous world of Dario Argento via his bizarre 1985 giallo horror Phenomena (known as Creepers in the US). Jennifer Connolly stars as an american schoolgirl adrift in a Swiss academy while a brutal killer stalks the wilderness outside. We were intrigued by the eponymous phenomena of telepathic insects and enjoyed the film's brief considerations of insect minds as a form of neurodiversity. We also enjoyed Argento's signature cinematic energy as a potential expression of autistic sensory intensity, but we struggled with the excessive violence and ableism of the film's final melodramatic act. We also gave due consideration to the chimpanzee Inga, who we all agreed was the film's finest actor...  

Our extra special guest for this episode is autistic researcher, musician and beekeeper Dr Gemma Williams. We loved having Gemma on the show and we would urge you all to check out her research papers and her brilliant musical output. You can find links to all of Gemma's work here:

https://linktr.ee/DjzemaLouiz

Alongside Gemma, you also hear the thoughts and opinions of our regular hosts John-James Laidlow, Janet Harbord, and David Hartley.

Follow us on twitter @AutismCinema and send us your reflections on our discussions to cinemautism@gmail.com

The Reason I Jump is the most contemporary film we've covered so far, and we were glad to be able to sit in actual cinema auditoriums to watch this complex and fascinating documentary. We enjoyed the audiovisual treats of the film, we appreciated the international outlook, and acknowledged how unusual it is to see minimally-verbal autistic individuals on screen. But we had plenty of questions about how the narratives of autism are presented. We address some of the controversies surrounding Facilitated Communication, while also reflecting on whether the film has been made for a neurotypical audience and, therefore, may just be another in a long line of voyeuristic films about the condition. Are the subjects infantalised? Should the scene of meltdown have been included? Is there too much Othering going on? Our discussion generates a lot of questions, but we still find elements of the film that we will continue to value and treasure. A fascinating discussion!

The Reason I Jump is available to rent on YouTube, Google Play, and Amazon, among others. It is directed by Jerry Rothwell and based on the book of the same name by Naoki Higashida, translated by David Mitchell.

Discussing the film in this episode are Janet Harbord, John-James Laidlow, David Hartley and Alex Widdowson.   

The 12th Century polymath abbess Saint Hildegard von Bingen is the subject of our film this week via Margerethe von Trotta's compelling historical drama Vision. We're joined again by special guest Gemma Williams for whom Hildegard von Bingen has been something of an 'autistic special interest' for a while. We consider the themes of feeling othered and outcast, but also the strength those positions give for the forging of an individual path. We're careful to not retrospectively diagnose Hildegard as autistic, but reflect on the importance of identifying historical figures who may have been neurodivergent for the project of neurodiversity in the present day. Hildegard is a quietly revolutionary figure who stands up against the stringent rules of her day, and subsequently becomes a figurehead for the similarly neurodivergent seeking a place in the world. Following this idea, we soon identified another neurodivergent candidate in the film in the form of Hildegard's obsessive follower, Sister Richardis.

A shout-out as well to the musicians Lingua Ignota and Hildegard von Blingin' who we think our listeners might enjoy following this discussion! In today's episode you heard Dr Gemma Williams, John-James Laidlow, Ethan Lyon, and Dr David Hartley.

Contribute to our discussions or suggest future episodes at cinemautism@gmail.com     

We are officially bigger on the inside... Turns out we don't just cover 'cinema', we may occasionally warp our way onto the TV screen if we feel sufficiently compelled. And what could be more compelling than The Timelord themselves? 

It's Doctor Who time (timey-wimey?). Specifically, we focus our sonic screwdrivers onto the second serial of the fourth series of classic Who: 'The Tenth Planet'. This serial is notable for two reasons: the first appearance of the now iconic Cybermen, and the first time the Doctor dies and regenerates.

We are joined by extraordinary special guest, the completely excellent Harry Draper, who is a certified Big Finish Doctor Who audio story author who created the rather marvellous tale 'The Last Day at Work'. Find Harry's audio story here, downloadable for free: https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-short-trips-the-last-day-at-work-1917

There was so much to pack in that we decided to split the episode into two parts for your listening pleasure. Part two will be released tomorrow, but for now enjoy our initial discussions! We reflect on the performative values of the cybermen, the presence of female characters and female fans, and our personal histories with this most magnificent titan of British TV.

Tune in again tomorrow for Part 2!

"Life may be sad, but it's always beautiful"

Today we pay tribute to one of the greats of modern cinema, the late Jean-Luc Godard. We recorded this conversation before the recent announcement of his passing, so we've brought our discussion of Pierrot le Fou forward on our release schedule. Godard is a filmmaker who means a lot to us all at Autism Through Cinema. His unfailingly maverick approach to the cinematic art form serves as a profound expression of what can be possible in this medium with an outlook alternative to the mainstream.

Lillian, David and Ethan fall in love again with Godard's technicolour masterpiece. Pierrot le Fou is a meandering road movie about love, freedom, and disconnection, based on Lionel White's 1962 novel Obsession. We reflect on the neurodivergent sensibilities of the two protagonists, particularly Anna Karina's mesmerising performance as Marianne, while also considering how the techniques and directions of the French New Wave align with autistic ways of thinking.

This episode features a specially-recorded introduction by Lillian Crawford paying tribute to Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Do you have any thoughts or tributes to Godard? Send them to us on cinemautism@gmail.com and we'll happily read them out on a future episode. 

We're back! Thank you for bearing with us while we spent some time recording some new episodes.

First up, we find ourselves in Matt Reeves's gloomy new vision of Gotham City. We are prompted to use 'The Batman' as a way of doing self-reflection about the stereotypes perpetuated by autism-focused media, but we also find discussion points among the tricky representation of neurodivergence found in superheroes and supervillains. In particular, we tackle the relationship between incel culture and autism via Paul Dano's latest version of The Riddler, while also entertaining the possibility that Robert Pattinson's emo Bruce Wayne may also display traits of autistic tendency. And what of Gotham itself? A city that has descended into a dystopia of neurotypical dominance?

The parody of Autism Speaks and The Guardian which leads our discussion, as found by Alex Widdowson: https://www.instagram.com/p/CawTdTLr6t0/

ContraPoints on Incels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD2briZ6fB0

Thanks for listening! Do get in touch with us via cinemautism@gmail.com to suggest future episodes or to contribute to the discussions. We'll read out our favourite correspondance in a future recording!

The discussion of Chloé Zhao’s second feature film addresses the fine line between fact and fiction with actors playing themselves. We debate whether autistic sister Lily (Lily Jandreau) is the only free character in this western set in the badlands of South Dakota, resistant to the demands of the hyper-masculine patriarchal world of rodeo and refusing the trappings of femininity by cutting up a bra her father buys her. There’s also debate about whether difference is drafted into the film as story markers or plot points, the problematic treatment of animals (particularly horses), and the potentially cliched idea that there’s affinity between animals and autistic people.

It's also worth noting that this episode was recorded before Zhao won the Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards for Nomadland (2020), just in case you were wondering why we don't mention it!

Discussants: Georgia Bradburn, Steven Eastwood, Janet Harbord, David Hartley, Alex Widdowson.

Welcome back to a fresh batch of episodes exploring autistic resonance and sensibility on film!

We are delighted to welcome the wonderful Sophie Broadgate to the podcast today. Sophie is an autistic filmmaker working in Cumbria and Manchester whose recent short films 'In Motion' and 'We've created invisible systems and structures' explore autistic identity and experience. We chat to Sophie about her own diagnostic experience, her processes working with autistic subjects, and some of her artistic choices. Sophie's brilliant work can be viewed on her website: pikaiafilms.co.uk. You can also find Sophie on Instagram at @sophiebroadgate.

We then move on to our discussion on Celine Sciamma's 2011 film Tomboy, which Sophie brought along for our consideration. We find much to admire in Sciamma's balanced approach to her subject matter, and uncover autistic resonance with Laure/Mickael's explorations of gender non-conformity and childhood. Questions marks hang over the final narrative decision of the film but we appreciate the gentle and careful framing of the moment as a conscious choice of the protagonist.

Huge thanks to Sophie for joining us!

Welcome to the terrifying dystopia of Terry Gilliam's astounding sci-fi fever-dream Brazil. Our special guest this week is Neurocultures Collective member Benjamin Brown who offers Gilliam's cult classic as an exploration of the maddening labyrinth of neurotypicality endured in the form of social etiquette, bureaucracy, and conformity. We are thrilled by how the richness of the mise-en-scene rewards repeated viewing, and the entertainment value of the madcap performances of Jonathan Pryce, Michael Palin, and Robert De Niro. We reflect on how the film questions what typicality is, and what it means to suddenly feel like the outsider - and what might be discovered in that outsider position. We also draw attention to autistic forays into satire, including the wonderful 'Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical (ISNT)', as archived here: https://erikengdahl.se/autism/isnt/

Small apologies for the slight loss in sound quality in this recording - we had a bit of trouble with Benjamin's microphone, but hopefully you'll still be able to hear his contributions, especially if you listen through headphones. Joining Benjamin are the regular hosts David Hartley, Janet Harbord and Alex Widdowson.

Contact us on cinemautism[at]gmail[dot]com if you'd like to contribute, and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. 

This week, Georgia can barely contain her excitement about making us watch not one but two David Lynch films. We get up close with the angst-ridden Henry of Lynch's debut feature film Eraserhead while taking a brief detour through his earlier short film 'The Grandmother' from 1970. We wonder whether Lynch is contrary for the sake of being contrary, or if there's some deeper expression of divergence going on in his weird and wonderful worlds. We enjoy both films for their take on the idea of 'matter out of place' - a phrase which asks us to question why certain substances and fluids are considered dirty or taboo. However, we also tackle some darker and more difficult areas including incest, child abuse, and violence - so do proceed through this episode with caution.

It's worth noting that we will be screening Lynch's Mulholland Dr. (2000) at our Autism and Cinema season at the Barbican in September. The event will be preceded by an introduction from Georgia herself, and tickets can be grabbed via the Barbican website: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/event/mulholland-drive-15-introduction

Your hosts for this episode are David Hartley, Janet Harbord, John-James Laidlow, Alex Widdowson and Georgia Bradburn.

Part two of our special double episode about the wondrous Doctor Who. Harry Draper is still with us, and we spend some time talking through his brilliant contribution to the world of Who audio stories, his TARDIS-focused tale 'The Last Day at Work', which is available here: https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-short-trips-the-last-day-at-work-1917

We also engage in a fascinating discussion about the joys and perils of autistic tendencies towards extreme fandom, such as the collecting of merchandise, fan socialising, and the deep knowledge of lore. We question to what extent media corporations have a responsibility to consider how far they may be exploiting autistic fans from excessive merchandising and extended universes. We further consider how such fandoms have in turn created certain mythologies about autism itself, especially in relation to gender.

Important final charitable note!: Harry has asked us to share the fundraising page for the British Heart Foundation, created in memory of Big Finish legend Paul Spragg. If you can spare any money, please donate here:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/big-finish-paul-spragg

Thank you for listening, and be safe out there in the big wide world of all of time and space!

Can non-autistic actors play autistic characters motivates this discussion which takes as its focus the Safdie brothers’ film Good Time, and references Sia’s Music along the way. The problematic performance of a learning disability in Music is considered in its reductive and child-like presentation. We discuss whether Nick in Good Time, a character with a learning disability played by Ben Safdie, can offer something more positive as a vehicle for exploring autistic meltdowns and masking. Or is he, like many autistic characters, a narrative prosthesis, grafted on to a plot essentially about the drama of crime. Does institutional care offer support away from his brother’s exploitation, or confinement and a restricted life. Anxiety generated through the pace and soundtrack including tracks by Oneohtrix Point Never, and the Iggy Pop song The Pure and the Damned.

Discussants: Alex, David, Georgia, Janet, John-James.

On the 9th September 2023 the ATC podcast team will be appearing live at The Garden Cinema in Covent Garden, London.

There will be a screening of Celine Song’s critically acclaimed debut film ‘Past Lives’ at 14:50 followed by a panel discussion & Q&A with Lillian, Georgia, Ethan and David.

The screening will be a relaxed screening, and tickets can be purchased here: https://www.thegardencinema.co.uk/film/relaxed-screening-past-lives/

Read more about 'Past Lives' in this 5-star review: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/sep/06/past-lives-review-a-must-see-story-of-lost-loves-childhood-crushes-and-changing-identities

In this rather exclusive episode, Alex, Ethan, & David take a look at an as yet unreleased film called 'Voice', directed by Norwegian director Ana Hjort Guttu. A documentary maker from Norwegian TV meets resistance when she contacts a group of filmmaking activists to tell a story that is not her own. 'Voice' is a fascinating look at documentary ethics which gives us a springboard to talk about the issues we might need to consider when the subjects of our non-fiction films are not from our own neurotype. Here's the IMDB entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27035082/ 

We soon move to talking about some of the best and worst offerings of recent documentaries about autism, including the BBC's 'Paddy and Christine McGuinness: Our Family and Autism' and 'Christine McGuinness: Unmasking my Autism'. We also look at 'Chris Packham: Inside Our Minds', 'I Am Greta', and 'I Think We're Alone Now', as well as Alex's own work 'Drawing on Autism'.

We also give a quick shout out to a wonderful radical left comedy podcast Mandatory Redistribution Party, as hosted by neurodivergent hosts Jack Evans and Sean Morley. You can find Mandos here: https://mandatoryredistributionparty.podbean.com/

Thank you for listening!

On the 1st December 2022, the Sight and Sound Greatest Film of All Time poll unveiled a surprising result. The poll takes place every 10 years and for fifty years the top spot was held by Citizen Kane before switching to Vertigo in 2012. This time, with a wider pool of industry voters including filmmakers, critics, academics and curators, the crown has been snatched by Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975).

Lillian has been super keen to bring Akerman to the ATC podcast for a while, so we decided this was a perfect opportunity. She is joined by Janet and Georgia for a wide-ranging discussion about autism, feminism, and the nature of what to include in the 'Greatest Films of All Time' canon.

Do you have thoughts on the Sight and Sound Poll? Have you identified autistic presence in Akerman's work? Do let us know! You can email us your thoughts on cinemautism [at] gmail.com

Our podcast people - namely John-James, Alex and Ethan - tackle the pod people of Philip Kaufman's 1978 sci-fi horror film Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This unnerving tale of alien invasion arose from the anxieties of the 'Red Scare' of the 1950s when Soviet Union communism was the peak existential threat to the American way-of-life. The aliens clone humans in pods and use those clones to lure new victims. It is the strange behaviour of the clones that alerts the heroes to the presence of an invasive force. So, in the context of autism and neurodivergence, we find here a tale of neurological difference where behaviour and social divergence marks people out as 'other'. We toy with the idea that the pod-people are the conformist neurotypicals determined to assimilate everyone into their ideology, but those same aliens could metaphorically stand for the fears of the 'contagion' of neurodivergence. Perhaps the pod-people are thrillingly different? Perhaps they are revolutionaries? We twist and turn around these ideas, before contemplating what a present day version of this timeless tale might look like.

The voices in this episode are Ethan Lyon, Alex Widdowson, and John-James Laidlow.

Give us your thoughts by email cinemautism[at]gmail.com     

We take a gentle, nostalgic, and surreal turn with this episode via Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2010 palm d'or winning fantasy film, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

We meditate on what so-called 'Slow Cinema' can offer the autistic viewer, and how this form of filmmaking cuts against the mainstream fast-paced approach. We also enjoy Weerasethakul's fantastical leanings and the methods he uses to normalise and naturalise the supernatural, while we also consider how the natural landscape of the Thai jungles evoke the connections often made between autism and the environment.

Georgia manages to make an intriguing comparison to the work of David Lynch, while Lillian laments alternative methods of filming nature that Uncle Boonmee seems to want to resist.

To read about the autistic 'ecological sainthoods', as explored by Dr Anna Stenning, find her article here: https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/7715/7606 

What do you make of the work of Weerasethakul and other proponents of 'slow cinema'? Does it connect with an autistic sensibility? Do let us know! Email us on cinemautism[at]gmail.com or join in the conversation on twitter @AutismCinema

We are skipping and stimming with delight to welcome Australian filmmaker and producer Sophia Rose O'Rourke to the podcast today. Sophia talks us through her experiences as an autistic creative and how she has been using filmmaking to help discover and explore her own identity. We talk about her short film 'Danse Russe', based on William Carlos Williams' poem of the same name: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46483/danse-russe, and we spend some time dwelling on the barriers that autistic people can face when trying to make a space in the film industry. But we also celebrate the very rich strengths that the autistic way-of-thinking can bring to creative cinematic spaces.

We then turn our attention the 1993 version of The Secret Garden directed by Agnieszka Holland and based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Sophia recalls her love of the film from childhood and the recognition she felt through the protagonist, Mary. We also reflect on the film's depiction of disability, and the power dynamics that can sometimes arise between carers and dependants.

After the recording, Sophia sent us a timely article on The Conversation about autism and employment. Have a read of it here: https://theconversation.com/how-do-we-make-workplaces-work-for-autistic-people-189572 

Enormous thanks to Sophia for taking the time to talk to us and for suggesting The Secret Garden. You can follow Sophia on Twitter at https://twitter.com/auntie_sophie 

Do get in touch if you have any reactions to this episode!

We have arrived at our final episode as the 'Autism Through Cinema' podcast. 

This is also our 50th episode, so all six of the regular hosts have gathered to look back on the work we have done over the past few years. Each host picks a favourite episode and offers their thoughts, before we join back together to reflect on the medium of podcasting as an academic pursuit.

Here are the direct links to the episodes discussed by each host:

Georgia: Punch-Drunk Love

Ethan: Cat People

Janet: Orlando

Alex: Asylum

Lillian: Amelie

David: Cars

We are hopeful that in some regard some of us may well be able to return to podcasting about the ongoing connections between autism and film, but for now we will say goodbye and thank you so very much for listening.

And huge special thank you also to all who have been involved in the making of this podcast, including our former host John-James Laidlow, all our wonderful special guests, and our editors Benjamin Leverett-Jaques and 344 Audio.

And final thanks to you, our listeners, for your downloads, streams, and support over the past few years. 

Here's to a bright autistic cinematic future!

There's a Peter Greenaway season happening over at the BFI in London, and our Lillian recently conducted an interview with the man himself, which you can find here: 

https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/beginning-was-image-interview-with-peter-greenaway 

We thought, therefore, that it was high time we covered Greenaway, especially with Ethan boldly describing the director's work as one of the 'most autistic'...

Lillian and Ethan get together with Georgia to tackle Greenaway's first feature-length film, the epic apocalyptic mockumentary The Falls. We find an autistic mode in the film's approach to categorising and cataloguing, and connect strongly with Greenaway's interest in attempting to both capture and elude a wholeness and totality.

We also enjoy the film's absurdist imagery, and its complex approach to the use of language, particularly in relation to finding new words and visual imagery for what cannot be easily expressed. The mention of autism in relation to Greenaway on the documentary The Greenaway Alphabet is warmly received and enables our team to be all that more effusive about autistic presence in The Falls, and the affirmation of autistic presence in filmmaking more widely. 

Catch the Greenaway season at the BFI across November and December, and also on the BFI Player.

And, if you're quick, you might be able to see Ethan in the flesh when he gives his introduction to David Cronenberg's The Fly at the BFI on Monday 28th November 2022. Tickets still available here.

Merry festivities! Happy yuletide, one and all, and welcome to... Halloween Town? In a our special festive episode David, Ethan, John-James and Janet gather around the logfire to consider the tales of the musical animation The Nightmare Before Christmas. We were entranced by the protagonist Jack Skellington as an optimistic dreamer who seems to be on a different wavelength to those around him, while his eventual beau Sally watches from the fringes. Perhaps their eventual union is based on neurodivergent romantics? A community of disability is identified among the residents of Halloween Town, and how that helps us relate to the nonsensical nature of the movie musical. We also considered the rumoured autism of creator Tim Burton and how this shapes our interpretation of his singular cinematic vision.

Want to contribute to our discussions? Email us on cinemautism@gmail.com with your thoughts on this film, or any of the films we've considered so far.

Have a great festive season - we'll be back in January with more episodes. 

We welcome special guest Natalie Marcus to the podcast, who brings along the curious romantic comedy Lars and the Real Girl (2007) for discussion. The film depicts a shy and socially awkward man played by Ryan Gosling who buys himself a sex doll, calls it Bianca, and treats it as his real girlfriend. Rather than a gratuitous and crude sex comedy, or a saccharine depiction of an autistic outsider, we were surprised to find a gentle and careful film that does an honest job of exploring alternative social existence. We talk around themes of social rehearsal, the animism of objects, and the incorporation of neurodiversity into communities. There are some concerns raised around the patriarchal control that Lars has over Bianca, but we welcomed the way the film attempts to show how learning important social lessons around gender can be enriching.

On this recording you hear Natalie Marcus, David Hartley, John-James Laidlow, Georgia Bradburn and Janet Harbord.

Have any thoughts on this film?

Email us on cinemautism@gmail.com or tweet us at @AutismCinema

https://www.autism-through-cinema.org.uk/

A huge welcome today to our final special guest, the wonderful Alex Gregson. Alex is Head of Audio at 344 Audio, and has led on the edits of the last eight episodes of our podcast, for which we are eternal grateful. He is newly diagnosed as autistic and reflects very thoughtfully on how his autism has contributed positively to his career as a sound engineer and audio editor.

For our analysis, Alex brings along Alejandro González Iñárritu's Academy Award winning 2015 revenge thriller The Revenant, and asks David and Lillian to pay particular attention to the rich soundscape of the film. We discuss the careful detailing of the sound design, as well as Iñárritu's concoction of a 'cacajanga' soundscape. We find autistic resonance in the meticulous attention paid to the layering of the natural sounds of the wild landscapes, as well as the precise choices made in the levels of balance between sound effects, score and dialogue.

We move on the reflect on some of the challenges faced by neurodivergent individuals who are sensitive to sound, and consider how filmmakers might rethink their approach to final mix of a movie to better accommodate those who might struggle with such sensory input.

A huge thanks again to Alex for joining us, and for doing such a brilliant job of editing our latest batch of episodes. For more on the work that 344 Audio do, you can visit their website here: https://www.344audio.com/

Varda’s film explores the history and contemporary practices of gleaning (picking up leftovers after the act of harvesting), putting digression at the centre of its approach. Following wherever intuition and coincidence lead, the film becomes a non-linear accumulation of stories and objects. The discussion considers whether Varda is a trickster figure in her style of striking up ‘stranger familiarity’, and whether it is a film of peripheral outsiders or a display of how different people are everywhere. A particular resonance with autism is its celebration of monotropism and special interests, which leads to a debate of whether filmmaking in itself can be seen as a type of autistic hyper-focus.

Discussants: Alex Widdowson, David Hartley, Georgia Kumari Bradburn, Janet Harbord, John-James Laidlow, & Vicky Thonton.

Email us your reactions to cinemautism@gmail.com

Hold onto your heads, we're back at you with another horror film just in time for spooky season. Ethan takes Alex and David into the splattery world of David Cronenberg via his 1981 brain-exploding psychological thriller Scanners.

We ponder whether the eponymous telepaths might stand in for an oppressed neurodivergent group, while reflecting on Cronenberg's apparent anti-psychiatry stance. There's a power-play in the film from authority figures seeking to control the scanners, set against a slightly more fascistic ideology of scanner revolution, and we wonder where to place heroism and villainy in this headache of a story. The discussion winds its way to a reflection on the extensive problems around the anti-vaxx movement and we find many parallels with this film and the story of a certain Dr Wakefield. David even starts to ask if science-fiction horror has helped to fuel an anti-science rhetoric? Nevertheless, there is much to enjoy in the gurning faces of the characters, and the gutsy bodyhorror that Cronenberg specialises in. 

We would therefore send a little content warning to those of you interested in watching this film - at times it is pretty horrible, and deals with a lot of dark and disturbing themes.

Join in the conversation at @autismcinema on Twitter and via email at cinemautism[at]gmail.com.

In Mick Jackson's TV film Temple Grandin, Claire Danes shines in the title role, portraying one of the world's most famous autistic women. Temple is shown to be a formidable force of nature as she takes on the professors of her college, and the workers of the feedlot where she will eventually design her famous cattle chute system. We discuss how the film makes use of animation techniques to offer a visualisation of Temple's way of 'thinking in pictures', although we reserve concerns that this may essentialise autism a little too much. We consider Temple in relation to her gender as a strong female character in many very masculine environments, and what impression this leaves us for thinking through autistic femininity.

Temple Grandin will be screened on the 16th September at our Autism and Cinema season at the Barbican, London. The film will be followed by a short pre-recorded interview with the real Temple, and then a Q&A with podcast host Dr David Hartley, and Dr Bonnie Evans, author of The Metamorphosis of Autism. Tickets are free and can be bought from the Barbican website: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/event/temple-grandin-pg-screentalk

If you have enjoyed this episode, please leave us a comment or feedback, or get in touch on cinemautism[at]gmail.com

Jiminy Cricket! It's a Wes Anderson episode! 

David, Lillian and Ethan get all warm and cosy with the pastel-colours and eccentric characters of Anderson's celebrated 7th feature film Moonrise Kingdom. The film crackles with a neurodivergent energy, from the neat tableaus of the cinematography to the gently rebellious characters of Sam and Suzy. We discuss how Anderson's use of a childlike gaze creates a visual style that emphasises formal qualities and static images, with a clear attention to comedic background details. We find useful analysis from Jacob Siegel's essay 'Wes Anderson and the Aesthetics of Autism', particularly the idea that having 'a fierce loyalty to one's passions' is 'it's own victory' as evoked by many of Anderson's tragic and comedic characters. Find the full essay here: http://newpartisan.squarespace.com/home/wes-anderson-and-the-aesthetics-of-autism.html 

There's also enthusiasm for Anderson's use of Benjamin Britten's music in Moonrise Kingdom, his careful approach to sexuality, and the performances of Tilda Swinton (who has appeared previously in our Orlando episode).

As ever, we'd love to hear from our listeners. Do you have a favourite Anderson film? Do you find an autistic presence in his movies? If you have comments, let us know via cinemautism@gmail.com and we'll find some time to read them out in a future recording.

Today we welcome special guest host Richard Butchins to the podcast. Richard is a filmmaker, documentarian, TV presenter and disability activist whose credits include BBC's Panorama, ITV's Exposure and Channel 4's Dispatches. Richard's brilliant short films and photography can be found on his website: https://www.richardbutchins.art/

Richard brings along the 1972 documentary Sayonara CP (also known as Goodbye CP) directed by Kazuo Hara for Alex and Ethan to discuss. This tough and unflinching film follows the lives of Yokota Hiroshi and Yokozuka Koichi, two members of an activist group for people with cerebral palsy. Richard offers the film as an example of a direct engagement with disability discomfort that asks questions of an audience's perception and acceptance of physical and cognitive difference.

Many thanks to Richard for agreeing to be a guest on the show. If you have a response to the discussion on today's episode, please do get in touch with us! You can email us your thoughts on cinemautism@gmail.com or tweet us a reaction at @AutismCinema.

We've made a brief sidestep into TV for the first half of episode #41 because we are joined by the wonderful Andrew Brenner, Headwriter of the CBeebies show Pablo. For the uninitiated, Pablo is an animated show about an autistic boy and his imaginary animal friends and has been a staple of CBeebies since 2017. Andrew talks us through how the show came to be, how it developed, and the importance of working with autistic performers. Three particular episodes of the show are discussed, all of which are freely available to view on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b097bs09/pablo

It's also worth mentioning that we have previously featured one of the voice actors from Pablo, the brilliant artist Sumita Majumdar who joined us for episode #23 to talk about Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story. Do scroll back through our archive to find it!

Following the Pablo chat, Andrew, Janet, Alex and Georgia move on to discuss the 1971 Hal Ashby film Harold & Maude. The film's two outsider protagonists are considered in autistic terms, as is their unusual age-gap relationship. Empathy comes under examination, which is found to be lacking in the stiff typical characters that surround the central pair, before the discussion turns to how the two central characters buck the conventions of gender expectations.

Towards the end, Andrew gives a shout-out to our crossover episode with Talking Images in which co-host David Hartley talks about another of Ashby's films about an outsider: Being There. Here's the link to that episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ACULrwtGxYWM867qPxpdU

Huge thanks to Andrew for joining us!  

Dearest listeners - we need to take a short break while we record some new episodes. When we return, we plan to bring you a special series of episodes where we talk to autistic people working within the film industry, alongside our regular output of film discussions.

To that end, if YOU are an autistic person working within the film industry in some form, we'd love to hear from you! Please get in touch on cinemautism@gmail.com and tell us a bit about yourself. Or you can drop us a message via our website: https://www.autism-through-cinema.org.uk/contact

In the meantime, our back catalogue of episodes is staying up, giving you time to catch up with any you may have missed.

We hope to return in the summer. See you then!

ATC Podcast

Peter Robinson's documentary Asylum places a film crew within an experimental psychiatric home set up by the radical psychiatrist R.D. Laing, where they observe and interact with the schizophrenic patients who live there in the late 60s. The Autism Through Cinema team discuss the film in relation to the anti-psychiatry movement, counter-cultural ideologies, and the ethics of film crew intrusion into the lives of the documentary's subjects. We reconsider the footage in the light of the neurodiversity paradigm, and bring many of our own personal and familial experiences with care institutions to bear on what we've encountered in Robinson's film. We wonder about Laing's own charisma and authority in his brief appearances, while also linking our thoughts out to other films that feature 'asylums' like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Girl, Interrupted. Finally, at the last moment, glamour model Katie Price makes an unexpected appearance.

Content warning: we do discuss experiences within psychiatric institutions, so please take care if this is an issue for you.

In this episode you hear Alex Widdowson, Janet Harbord, David Hartley, and Georgia Bradburn. 

In this very animated episode, the team turn their attention to a pair of SparkShorts from Pixar that deal directly with autistic experience; Float (2019) by Bobby Rubio, and Loop (2020) by Erica Milsom. Followng this, they pull apart the imagery, metaphors and characters of Adam Elliot's stop-motion feature length film Mary and Max (2009). They consider what animated film can do for the depiction of autism that is not as easily acheived in live-action, while also debating the ethics of working in collaboration with real autistic individuals. Loop, for example, features the vocal contributions of minimally verbal actor Madison Bandy, while Mary and Max was directly inspired by Elliot's real-life autistic penpal. We also consider the depiction of trauma, the relationship between autism and age, and the use of caricature and the grotesque.

In this episode you hear Janet Harbord, Alex Widdowson, John-James Laidlow, Georgia Bradburn and David Hartley.

For more on the Autism Through Cinema project, check out our website: https://www.autism-through-cinema.org.uk/. Follow us on Twitter at @AutismCinema, and send us messages on cinemautism[at]gmail.com

Same as it ever was! Same as it ever was!

Today we're in the company of the great David Byrne, the lead singer of Talking Heads, and his one and only feature film True Stories. There are, as Alex suggests, 'big-time autistic vibes' around Byrne in the film, but also in the sensibility of the way the film is structured and presented. We enjoy being led through the world of the film through the eyes of an autistic individual, leading us to question whether an autistic sensibility resists or challenge conventional narrative forms. We discuss the diagrammatic nature of the narrative and how that provides a sense of a soothing order, as well as a Brechtian distance, while also reflecting on Byrne's interest in technofuturism.  

The film in this episode was recommended to us by listener Analotta Pauly, who sent us a link to this brilliant article on Medium: https://medium.com/counterarts/david-byrnes-true-stories-as-a-search-for-autistic-connection-43629c62cd07

We're always keen to hear from our listeners, so please do drop us a message on cinemautism@gmail.com if you'd like to suggest films for us to consider in the future.

Welcome to the Autism Through Cinema podcast!

In the first of a series of special episodes talking with neurodivergent and autistic filmmakers and film workers, we welcome video artist Alicia Radage to the podcast. Alicia's practice combines performance art, shamanistic ritual and videography that attempts to reach an understanding of neurodivergent connections to the 'more-than-human'. We discovered her through brilliant Shape Arts commission 'Quake', where she performs a ritualistic cycle of singing, meditating and dancing for worms - find the link to the work below. We discussed the possibilities of a neurodivergent aesthetic, how film allows performance artists to make enriched use of time and detail, and problems with the terms 'high and low functioning'.

We also spent some time talking with John-James Laidlow, our regular host, about his video work Another Way is Possible and Peeling Tatties, available to view on his website. Recently, John-James has decided to step down from the podcast as a regular host so we'd like to say a big thank you to John-James for all his brilliant contributions to Autism Through Cinema. 

A quick word of warning: there is some use of strong language in this episode, so please use caution if that is an issue for you. Also, Alicia's work that we link to below on her website contains nudity and some challenging themes.

Huge thanks to Alicia for agreeing to be on the podcast and for being such a fascinating guest!

Alicia Radage's website: https://www.aliciaradage.com/

Quake on Shape Arts: https://www.shapearts.org.uk/blog/watch-quake-a-new-performance-work-from-alicia-radage 

Quake on Alicia's website: https://www.aliciaradage.com/quake (CW: nudity)

Alicia at the Whitstable Biennale with MOTHER BENT, 11th June: https://whitstablebiennale.com/project/mother-bent/ 

Alicia as part of 'The Healing Collective' at Giant Gallery in Bournemouth from the 19th June: https://www.giant.space/upcoming 

John-James Laidlow's video work: https://john-james.hotglue.me/ 

The philosopher Erin Manning's book Always More than One: https://www.dukeupress.edu/always-more-than-one 

Autistic musician John Biddulph and his moss music: https://johnbiddulph.bandcamp.com/album/perambulations-i 

We've addressed concerns in past episodes about autistic characters being portrayed by non-autistic actors. Well here, with Rachel Israel's romantic drama Keep the Change, we get the opportunity to enjoy a film with a predominantly autistic cast. Brandon Polansky plays David, an aspiring filmmaker whose life takes an unexpected turn when he's assigned a partner from his Community Centre workshop in the form of the vivacious and energetic Sarah, played by Samantha Elisofon. We find the presence of non-professional autistic actors to be a refreshing and exciting change from the norm, while also delighting in the representation of autistic individuals as deeply emotional and romantic. There were some concerns about how we were supposed to relate to David as a character who makes a number of distasteful decisions, but we were utterly charmed by his beau, Sarah, played with such energy and verve by Elisofon. We consider the representation of learning difficulties in relation to Sarah's misunderstanding of jokes, as well as the exploration of autism in relation to gender.

Keep the Change is being screened as part of our Autism and Cinema season on Tuesday 28th September at 6pm. There will be a talk hosted by Steven Eastwood and the Neurocultures Collective afterwards, and tickets are still available on the Barbican website: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/event/keep-the-change-screentalk

If you have any thoughts or comments about this episode, feel free to email us on cinemautism@gmail.com

On this episode you hear David Hartley, Janet Harbord, Georgia Bradburn and Alex Widdowson

In the second of a series of special episodes featuring autistic creatives, Janet and Ethan welcome the wonderful Daniel Bendelman to the podcast. Daniel is an autistic video artist and PhD student at The University of Kent whose work attempts to expose the power dynamics of autism representation through video art and performance-based installations. In particular, the team discuss Daniel's remarkable installation for 'Fragments', where Daniel performed the writing of his medical history next to a looped sequence from Rain Man, and his compelling short film 'The Life and Death of an Anonymous Autistic Man', produced by DYSPLA in 2018.

Daniel reflects on the influences of Michel Foucault and Franz Kafka on his work, and digs into his history as a person diagnosed as Aspergers at a childhood age and how his art practice humanises those experiences. There's also time for discussion around the complicated history of the term 'Aspergers' itself, from its removal from the DSM to the troubling associations of Hans Asperger with the Nazi regime.

Read more about Daniel in his interview with Colin Hambrook on Disability Arts Online: https://disabilityarts.online/magazine/opinion/daniel-bendelman-disrupting-the-gaze/ 

The imagery from Daniel's installation 'Fragments' can be viewed here via Gorm Ashurst's photography: https://www.gorminator.com/2015/06/fragments/ 

An expert from Daniel's film 'Life and Death of an Anonymous Autistic Man' can be viewed on DYSPLA: https://dyspla.com/Anonymous-Autistic-Man_film 

Have you seen any of Daniel's work? What are your thoughts? Do get in touch with us on cinemautism@gmail.com to join in with the conversation.

In a break with our normal schedule, and posted a week early, we bring you a special episode where we reflect on the nature of 'Relaxed Screenings'.

You might have seen these advertised at cinemas - special events organised with autistic and neurodivergent audiences in mind. Typically the lights are dimmed but not fully turned off, the volume is lowered, there's an understanding among the audience that there may be people fidgeting or making noise, and there's often a separate room set aside as a quiet space. All these accommodations are to be welcomed, but perhaps there are also some problems that arise from trying to create a 'one size fits all' approach to autism-friendly screenings? Also, who chooses the films that are shown in these relaxed screenings? What might happen when the curators are autistic themselves?

To discuss all this, Ethan and David have invited Maggi Hurt, a programmer at the British Film Institute in the Southbank, London. Maggi has been responsible for devising and programming the 'Relaxed Series' screenings where she has worked in collaboration with autistic film lovers to curate events for autistic audiences. For their upcoming 'In Dreams are Monsters' season, our very own Ethan Lyon has taken up the challenge, and has programmed two horror films for the Relaxed Series. We talk about Ethan's choices, while also reflecting on how relaxed screenings work and what their future might be.

Tickets are still available for Ethan's screenings, and the man himself will be there to lead a Q&A discussion session afterwards at both events. Here are the details:

Pontypool - Monday 31st October 2022, 18:10, NFT3. Tickets here: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=pontypoolrelaxed

The Fly - Monday 28th November 2022, 18:00, NFT3. Tickets here: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=flyrelaxed 

Also, David mentions a book by autistic journalist Laura Kate Dale, who writes a little about relaxed screenings. The book is called Uncomfortable Labels and you can find it here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/uncomfortable-labels/laura-kate-dale/9781785925870 

We take to the racetrack and speed, drift and power our way through the colourful world or Pixar's Cars this week, as brought to us by special guest Ash Loydon. Ash is an autistic illustrator and huge film fan, and his enthusiasm for the exploits of Lightning McQueen and Mater are utterly infectious. We reflect on what it is about the smooth edges and expressive faces of John Lasseter's cartoon vehicles that appeals to Ash and his autistic family, and how such franchise can appeal to the tendencies of autistic people to take pleasures from collecting and collating memorabilia. We also enjoyed the sensory world in the lovingly created landscapes of the film, and considered how the careful pacing appeals to the autistic mindframe. We consider the cars themselves as living objects, and greatly enjoyed the depth of the fantasy of the extended world.

Ash Loydon's art can be seen on his website http://ashsarthole.blogspot.com/ and follow him on Twitter for his latest news: https://twitter.com/AshtonLamont

Joining Ash today were John-James Laidlow, David Hartley, Janet Harbord, and Alex Widdowson.

If you're enjoying the podcast, please subscribe and you can review us on Apple Podcast. We're also very happy to receive feedback or comments - just email us on cinemautism@gmail.com

ATC phone home, ATC phone home...!

We're back among the aliens and the spaceships today as we tackle Steven Spielberg's tear-jerking classic. We're also incredibly delighted to welcome yet another wonderful special guest, the brilliant Sam Chown-Ahern! Sam is a filmmaker, artist, collaborator, and member of the Neurocultures Collective, who are currently working with Autism Through Cinema in the creation of an experimental feature film. Sam also presented a wonderfully bizarre re-edit of a scene from ET at the Autism Through Cinema conference in January 2023, and we discuss her motivations behind these artistic choices.

But mostly, we're having a good old chat about a well-beloved film. We find particular interest in the film's navigation of tropes from horror films and family dramas, and we consider Elliot as a figure of loneliness. We also pick up on ET as a film about communication, connecting this with non-normative modes of autistic communication.

Huge thanks to Sam! Check out Sam's work here: https://www.samchown-ahern.com/

Here at Autism Through Cinema we've always been interested in how film stretches beyond the traditional cinematic space, and how cinema appears in other contexts. With this in mind, Lillian asked Georgia and Janet to indulge in a trip to TATE Britain to take in the multi-screen spectacle of 'What Freedom is to Me', a retrospective of the work of New Queer filmmaker Isaac Julien.

The trio reflect on the freedoms that are afforded to neurodivergent viewers when not confined by the temporal and spatial limits of the cinema auditorium, as well as the social conventions inscribed in those spaces. Julien's work is considered in relation to its black and queer history, and a critical eye is turned towards the use of beauty to depict difficult subject matter.

The use of multiple screens and the freedom to wander in a gallery allow for further reflections on neurodivegent lives; from the 'rules' around how to look at certain things, to the sometimes strained interactions with other gallery visitors.

Sadly, the exhibition has now closed, but more on Isaac Julien's work can be found via his website: https://www.isaacjulien.com/

Thanks for listening.

Episode edited by 344 Audio. 

Ey up! We're up North today, in the company of cult comedy music legend Chris Sievey and his alter-ego Frank Sidebottom (and Little Frank, of course!). Our special guest is artist, writer and voice artist Sumita Majumdar who brings along her love and admiration for the wacky and unconventional Frank. We discuss how masking crosses over with performance, and how performance itself is a blurry concept when we layer ourselves with so many identities. We also reflect on the term 'eccentricity' and how that fits into the neurodiversity paradigm. There's a sense that Frank's eccentric character is made possible from being a northerner in a northern town rather than a Londoner, causing us to reflect on how neurodiversity sits in relation to locality. The film documents how the Frank Sidebottom character takes over Chris Sievey's life and dwells on some of the suffering Sievey goes through as a result. But we find 'suffering' to be a problematic concept in relation to the creation of art, and wonder if the ideas of neurodiversity give us a new way of looking at artistic creation and artistic industries.

For those unfamiliar with Frank Sidebottom, we suggest this delightful video of 'Panic on the Streets of Timperley': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcAME_Hs9mg

Big thanks to Sumita for joining us on this episode. For more on Sumita's work, do have a read of her article for the National Autistic Society: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/stories/stories-from-the-spectrum-pablo

Sumita was joined today by regulars Alex and David.

Follow us on @AutismCinema on Twitter and Instagram and email feedback to us on cinemautism[at]gmail.com

The podcast takes a queer turn as we link up with Sally Potter and Tilda Swinton and Virginia Woolf through Potter's exuberent time-bending period drama, Orlando. We enjoy the film's take on the artifice of society, which we connect with the autistic way of viewing the often nonsensical neurotypical world. Swinton's intimate fourth-wall-breaking gaze befriends the autistic viewer in a wry nod of collaboration, but also evokes the spectre of eye-contact which has such an emblematic status in the world of autism. We also take some time to reflect on the theory of the 'neuroqueer', as explored by Remi Yergeau's influential book Authoring Autism and Nick Walker's blog neuroqueer.com, via the film's timeless questioning of gender binaries and boundaries. 

If you have any thoughts or comments on this episode, send us an email at cinemautism@gmail.com

In today's episode you heard Georgia Bradburn, John-James Laidlow, David Hartley, and Janet Harbord. 

Do you like pineapple? If memories could be canned, would they also have expiry dates? Chungking Express asks a lot of questions of us and of itself, and we wonder how it fares when interrogated from an autistic perspective. We find that this dreamy, genre-bending, love story about longing, loss, and chance encounters is soaked with neurodivergence, from Cop 663's consideration of the emotions of the objects in his flat, to Faye's stimmy dancing and repetitive taste in music. We also enjoy Kar-wai's aesthetic choices as he darts between frantic camerawork and slow-motion tableaus, and a soundtrack to die for. Basically, quite a few of our regular hosts cherish this film as one of their all-time favourites and we have a great time discovering it anew.

It was lovely to welcome back Lillian Crawford for this recording, who is joined by Janet Harbord, John-James Laidlow and David Hartley.

A sci-fi film, based on Michel Faber’s novel and set in Glasgow, follows Scarlet Johansson as a nameless alien recently arrived on earth to prey on men and harvest their organs. The discussion considers whether Johansson’s character offers an outsider’s view of neurotypicality that is close to that of autism, looking on at a world of perplexing social rituals of seduction and consumption, or whether a suggested affinity between autism and a character who is alien is problematic. Also debated are the topics of posthumanism, feminist alien abduction of the male species, the film’s ethnographic style of filming ‘humankind’, Glasgow and white working-class culture, compassion between male characters, and the exploration of sexuality and gender as alien concepts.

Discussants: Georgia Kumari Bradburn, Janet Harbord, David Hartley, John-James Laidlow, Alex Widdowson.

Email us your insights at: cinemautism@gmail.com

We welcome special guest PhD student Ethan Lyon to the podcast, who brings along the 1942 horror classic Cat People for our scrutiny. Starring Simone Simon in the lead role, this moody horror noir folows Serbian immigrant Irena who believes herself to be a descendant of an ancient tribe of persecuted people who metamophorsize into bloodthirsty panthers when aroused. Ethan asks us to consider whether Irena might be understood through the lens of autism as a societal outsider who struggles with a number of sensory challenges, while forever under the scrutiny of the psychoanalytic gaze. We also discuss the legacies of historical events upon a person's identity, the Gothic in relation to the construction of mental health, and the often whimsical association of cats with autism, and dogs with neurotypicality.

Huge thanks to Ethan for joining us for this episode. The other discussants here are Alex Widdowson, Janet Harbord, David Hartley, Georgia Bradburn and John-James Laidlow.

As ever, please send your thoughts and comments to cinemautism@gmail.com

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For tickets to our Barbican season 'Autism and Cinema', please follow this link: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/series/autism-and-cinema-an-exploration-of-neurodiversity

It is the early 1930s and sound has arrived to cinema. The medium's most celebrated silent era star is struggling to embrace this new audio dawn, preferring to keep his iconic little tramp mute while making only minimal use of sound effects. Along comes City Lights, perhaps Chaplin's most personal film, and we spend time with the Tramp and his hijinks and pratfalls to uncover autistic content. Are his awkward yet balletic movements through spaces reminiscent of some autistic tendencies of clumsiness? Does his resistance to the noise of the sound era create an autistic aesthetic of imagery and music rather than verbal communication? Do we need words anyway?

After a wonderful introduction from Lillian, Ethan and David join in the discussion and we revel in the set-pieces, the performance, and the gloriously romantic ending. Apologies for such a loooong episode, but we had so much we wanted to say!

Please do join in the conversation via our email cinemautism [at] gmail.com, and if you enjoy this podcast, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, or simply share it with everyone you know...

Lillian, David and Alex grab their broomsticks and take flight today into the magical worlds of Studio Ghibli via Hayao Miyazaki's 1989 film Kiki's Delivery Service. In among the gorgeous animation we find a meditation on the nature of difference and an exploration of the feeling of being an outsider. Kiki's wild energy and her bouts of gloom are likened to the rollercoaster emotions of the hardworking neurodivergent, while the concept of witchiness is also brought under autistic scrutiny. We reflect on how why the genres of anime and manga seem to appeal to autistic sensibilities, then we discuss a few more Ghibli films that have made a strong impression on us - particularly Spirited Away (2001) and Ponyo (2008). 

What's your take on Studio Ghibli films? Have they offered a cinematic space of autistic pleasure and escapism? Let us know your favourites on twitter at @AutismCinema or via email on cinemautism[at]gmail[dot]com.

Adam Sandler’s intensity as a character and actor garners much love in this discussion of autism, comedy and romance. The relationship of the neurodivergent character with his neurotypical siblings is discussed in terms of its pain and discomfort, and the character’s romantic relationship as an antidote to this. The character’s chaos meets a certain otherness in Emily Watson’s character, perhaps her Englishness featuring as Other. The discussion debates whether the film sets and colour palette, and the spatial arrangement of the scenes, foreground an autistic sensibility.  Equally significant in this discussion is the eclectic soundtrack including Shitmat.

Discussants: Alex, David, Georgia.

An episode which has been a long time coming, Georgia, David and Lillian finally tackle the cult classic cyberpunk sci-fi of Ridley Scott's groundbreaking Blade Runner.

There is much to discuss from this 'parable of neurodiversity' (as David puts it), including how the Voight-Kampff test of the film mirrors the real-life 'empathy' tests of autism diagnoses, and how the tag-line 'more human than human' relates to language used to describe (and dehumanise) autistic people.

The gang also consider the status of the cyborg 'replicants' as potential neurodivergent activists, while a special focus on the character of Rachel reveals how the film's cinematography potentially behaves in a neuroqueer manner.

The episode is inspired by David's article on autism and Blade Runner which can be found here if you have the access: https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/sfftv.2022.12

If not, you can find a version of the article in Chapter 4 of David's PhD thesis, which is available for free (after signing up to Academia.edu) here: https://www.academia.edu/45516790/The_Fantastic_Autistic_Divergence_Estrangement_and_The_Neuroqueer_Screen_in_Blade_Runner_The_Final_Cut_2007_and_Community_2009_2015_

And for even more on the connections between autism and Blade Runner do check out this blog series by SpeakerToAnimals: https://speakertoanimals.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/do-aspies-dream-of-electric-sheep/

Audio edits by 344 Audio.

We take the whimsical streets of Paris for Jean-Pierre Jeunet's cult classic Amelie in today's episode, brought to us by our very special guest autistic film journalist Lillian Crawford. We take great pleasure in revisiting Amelie from an autistic perspective, finding neurodivergent expression in the heightened audio and visual richness of Jeunet's film. Amelie herself is a character who uses various autistic techniques to figure out the people she meets, by using objects and wordplay rather than direct communication to reach her understandings. Things are not entirely rosy: concerns are raised about the film's adherence to heteronormativity, as well as a lack of non-white characters, as well as its sanitised vision of a picture-perfect vision of Paris.

Huge thanks to Lillian Crawford for bringing this film to the podcast. We've all become big fans of Lillian's writing on film, and we'd very much encourage you to seek her words out. Visit her website here: lillcrawf.co.uk and follow her on Twitter here: twitter.com/lillcrawf

You also heard the voices of our regulars John-James Laidlow, Alex Widdowson and Janet Harbord.