MD6002 and CP6010 Christmas and New Year Break 2014 - 2015 Week 2 - A Is for Autism (1992)

A Is for Autism is a short autobiographical film wherein people with autism discuss their experiences of living with the condition, one of which is the autism activist Temple Grandin. The animation has a stylistic children's drawing look to it and is one of the case studies for my dissertation as well as an inspirational piece of work for my major studio project of a public infomation film to raise awareness of Asperger syndrome.

The film is mentioned throughout Honess Roe, A. (2013). Animated Documentary. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Below are the key points about this film I learnt about in the book. I have also made points about how it could relate to my own project:

• It was among one of the films to emerge during the animated documentary 'boom' in the 1990s alongside Bob Sabiston's 'Snack and Drink (1999),' Dennis Tupicoff's 'His Mother's Voice' and Sheila Sofian's 'Survivors,' the latter two being released in 1997 (13).

• The film is a hybrid of live-action and animation (124). It is representative of "the contrast between the autistic and the non-autistic on the world (p. 126)." My major studio project will be a hybrid of cut-out animation, photography and rotoscoping.

• The contributors of the film make up 10% of people with autism "who are able to communicate and reflect on their condition. (124 - 125)." Autism can range from being severe (e.g. Kanner's autism) to mild (e.g. Asperger syndrome), which is why it is referred to as a "spectrum disorder. (25)."

• According to the National Autistic Society (2012), autism can also "vary from mild to severe and impact on social communication, interaction and imagination (124)." These traits can also be found in the triad of impairments in people with autism.

• The film picks out "common traits of autism, such as love of routines" (for example one male contributor had to go to bed at exactly 8pm otherwise he would throw a tantrum), "sensory sensitivity" (for example Temple Grandin withdrawing from touch despite craving the feeling of tender touch) "and intense special interests" (for example another male contributor being fascinated by numbers and another finding trains interesting, (125). Daniel Sellers was another contributor who was interested in trains and he drew several pictures of them to make up animated sequences (125). Grandin's sensitivity to touch contradicting "with her craving for tenderness" was depicted by a 2D drawing of her as a little girl shrinking as a live-action woman hugs her (126). This scene used stop-motion animation in addition to live-action.

• The final scene of the film wherein a child rips a sheet of paper with an animated stick figure walking up the stairs "conveys both of the necessity and futility of repeated action, and the frustration that arises for both the autistic person and his or her caregiver (126)." As the child tears the paper, the figure finds itself "stuck in a loop at the top of the stairs," which means it has failed to reach its goal before the child tears and crumples up the last strip of paper.

• The film was commissioned by Channel 4 "as part of a season called 'Disabling Worlds.' (135)." Over the closing credits one male contributor discusses constantly watching the channel upon its launch in 1982. Although the film has been commissioned by Channel 4, it was shown on BBC Four in the clip embedded in this entry.

• The National Autistic Society sells the film online on DVD and endorses it (2011, 136). I am willing to make my public information film in collaboration with the NAS and I also hope they will endorse it.

I have also made the following notes on a case study of this film in Wells, P. (1998). Understanding Animation. Abingdon: Routledge

• The film is a collaboration “between film-makers, teachers and students” as well as the autism activist Temple Grandin “to explain the condition of autism through the medium of penetrative animation (124).”

• Although people with autism may have “moderate or sometimes severe learning difficulites,” they can have creative talents or excellent recall of memory. (124)

• The combination of emotions expressed through spoken word and “vivid drawings” is useful (124). This is because people with autism find pictures to tell a story easy to follow.

• The drawings that autistic children produced become animated sequences. The sequences in turn reveal how a person perceives the world whereas in the film autistic people themselves record that perception “sometimes allying it with their voice contribution” and “attempting to draw the feeling of experience’ at other times (124).

• One contributor stressed how he hated small shops because his eyesight made them smaller than they actually were (125). This verbal contribution was accompanied by the shrinking interior of a shop.

• Another contributor expressed his ability to understand the first two words of a sentence his teacher would say at school until the words merged. This example of "psychological clarity into utter discord” is depicted by the words of the contributor’s narration being written on a blackboard on which “the viewer is able to read until the sentences merge with each other and obscure the means of communicating effectively.” (125). The same contributor also referred to his hearing and eyesight bearing the likeness of an untuned television. The narration is accompanied by an underground train emerging from darkness, going through a station and heading for the darkness again. This is a more obscure yet creative way of depicting the situation rather than using an animation of a poorly tuned television.

• The mixture of live-action footage and animation is a successful combination in this film because it gives the film a sense of the ‘real world.’ (125). The opening scene shows a drawn house. The camera zooms into the window to show a boy drawing crude and abstract pictures. They evolve into self portraits of people that morph into one another and increase in detail each time. The increase of detail in each self portrait signifies “growth and development’ and metamorphosis.

• The film’s narrative covers “the nature of obsessional thinking” by “using a series of images” and live-action footage to “reflect individual preoccupations,” for example shots of people opening and closing the doors and turning taps on and off as well as paper cut-outs of Grandin as a young girl spinning a coin. (125). Grandin was pre-occupied with this activity because it shut out sounds that would hurt her ears. Other examples include the spinning record on a record player in both animated and live-action form and “fascination with counting numbers.”

• Although Daniel Sellers draws frames for successful animated train sequences, he admits that his road sequence “leads nowhere.” (125). This shows that his fascination of trains is “practical, engaging and relevant” (126) but his road sequence leading nowhere could show that people with autism struggle to make sense of the world around them.

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