Rothwell tells the story of these characters with optimism at the heart of everything he does, not soft-soaping the difficulties but focusing on the increased understanding and innovation that’s making it easier to live as a non-verbal person on the autism spectrum.
It’s a bracing way to knock the audience out of their comfort zone and into someone else’s shoes, in which the world is “chaotic, raw and visceral”. When the narration discusses the ways in which Higashida often notices the details of a scenario before the bigger picture, the soundtrack fills with the sound of raindrops hitting the ground like shards of shattered glass and waves crashing like lead weights on rocks.
The Reason I Jump is a delightfully sensory experience, with unique visual choices and an unconventional soundscape serving to accentuate the ideas at play. Rothwell spans the entire planet in his discussion of the unique ways in which autistic people see the world, gently illuminating that for those of us who could never dream of experiencing life in this way. There’s Broadstairs resident Joss and Virginia couple Ben and Emma, as well as Indian teenager Amrit and Jestina in Sierra Leone. Filmmaker Jerry Rothwell has transposed Higashida’s words into a documentary, exploring the minds and lives of autistic people all over the world.Ī narrated version of some of the book’s key ideas forms the spine of the film, which moves through a number of case studies, depicting the differing struggles faced by non-verbal autistic people across the world. Though there is some controversy around its authorship, it was purportedly written by the Japanese teenager Naoki Higashida – a non-verbal autistic person. That’s where the 2007 book The Reason I Jump comes in.
One of the things that most hampers societal attitudes towards autism is the fact that it’s so difficult for neurotypical people to understand how brains different from their own actually work.
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