A double bill of experimental works, highlighting the power of unconventional cinematic approaches in capturing the experiences of autistic participants.
Jigsaw
Dir Robina Rose/GB 1980/67 mins
Produced in 1980 just before autism diagnoses began to rise, Jigsaw sought to depict a little-known condition in a new light. Robina Rose’s film focuses on the preoccupations of a group of autistic children in a specialist school in London. Rose’s immersive style engages with the content of the children’s activities bringing the audience into contact with the structure and content of their thoughts and actions.
Illuminating the Wilderness
Dirs Kate Adams, Tim Corrigan/GB 2018/40 mins
Illuminating the Wilderness is an exploratory film describing a unique trip to Glen Affric in the Scottish Highlands made by Project Art Works’ artists and makers. Documenting the exploration of the remote Glen by people who are highly sensitive to the sensory stimuli of the world around them, the film adopts a participatory method. It focuses on the pleasures and challenges of neurodivergent responses to wild landscapes, and considers concepts of the sublime as operating outside of language frameworks.