Films: An Autistic Film
Director: Jason Impey
Writer: Jason Impey
Actors: Rina Julia, Lorie-Lanie Shanks, Martin W Payne, Kieran Johnston
Synopsis: An Autistic Film is a short arthouse/drama film looking at autism, made by and starring autistic people. It follows adults with their day to day problems & struggles faced living in a modern society.
With The Southend-on-Sea Film Festival will be returning once again from Thursday 8th June to Sunday 11th June, I got an opportunity to ask co-Writer/Director Jason Impey a few questions about the film ‘An Autistic Film‘ which has been selected to play at the festival on Sunday 11th June at 2.30pm
Q. What can we expect from An Autistic Film?
A. A small glimpse at normal everyday life and day to day challenges an autistic adult faces.
Q. How did the idea for the film come about?
A. It is something I had been thinking about doing for a long time. Years ago after a very bad period in my life I ended up in hospital and was finally diagnosed as being autistic. This made a lot of things make sense to me at long last. As the years have gone by I have come across prejudice for being autistic and seen many autistic people misunderstood and struggle because of this and the way they are treated. I wanted to show and shed some light on this through a film as I find autism has not been represented much and certainly not well in the world of movies.
Q. What were some of the influences for the look and style of the film?
A. I wanted to make the film quite colourful and leave on a high note, even though it can be emotionally quite dark and challenging. I’m a big fan of hard hitting drama films and particularly like Larry Clark movies, especially Ken Park (2002) & Kids (1995) , which is partly where I drew the inspiration from. Both powerful pieces of filmmaking that leave an impact.
Q. Where there any elements of the original script which were adapted during filming?
A. The script was quite tight and pretty much stuck to. I had to be quite careful and cautious with my takes and how much footage we was filming due to shooting on super 8 and only having 2 cartridges.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments whilst making the Film?
A. The creative and supportive atmosphere while filming was amazing, and working with an understanding cast that helped bring my vision to life is my favourite element.
Q. Did you experience any issues whilst making the film?
A. My main issue and concern was hoping the footage was alright. Shooting on super 8 meant I had no playback to check the shot or even have a monitor. It was all analogue through the viewfinder – proper old school filmmaking that I loved and also terrified me, we have become so reliant on digital these days, its easy to check footage, do multiple takes etc without a worry, not the case when shooting on super 8! I have become custom to digital these days, it had been a long time since I had shot on film which I use to absolutely love doing.
Q. What do you hope people will take away from the film
A. A positive message to show you are not alone through times of trouble and a little bit more understanding of people who are autistic.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are working on?
A. I have just completed a new short film that follows on this same theme in more detail called ‘Just Another Day’. This time I shot on 4K.
Q. If someone is looking to direct their first film, what advice would you give them?
A. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things that may not be conventional but you feel adds to your movie, stand out from the crowd.
You can find out more about ‘An Autistic Film’ on the following social media
Instagram – Twitter – Facebook
The Southend Film Festival will run from Thursday 8th June to Sunday 11th June
You can find out more and purchase tickets for the Southend Film Festival here
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
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