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THE REASON I JUMP
Director: Jerry Rothwell MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:22 Release Date: 1/8/21 (limited; virtual) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 7, 2021 In 2007, a book by Naoki Higashida, then 15, was published. It detailed and documented his experience as a child with autism, giving people an idea of what it is like to live with the developmental difference. Director Jerry Rothwell has taken Higashida's words and formed them into The Reason I Jump (The title is taken from the author's book), a documentary that follows five teenagers with a non-verbal form of autism. We observe these children, from different parts of the world, as they go through their daily routines. The parents offer some insights and background on their kids. All of them, to one degree or another, admit that their knowledge is limited in some way, because of course it will be. One father has only one wish: that he could spend ten seconds inside his son's mind, just to have a brief understanding of how his child experiences the world. These stories are difficult, to see these closely knit families constantly divided by a fundamental absence of understanding, but also uplifting. Two of the teens, living in Canada, have been friends for more than a decade. Recently, a tutor has found a way for them to communicate, using a picture board with all the letters of the alphabet. Anyone who possesses some ignorance, either intentional or uninformed, about the inner lives and worth of people with autism should have their misunderstandings shattered in these scenes. That's particularly true when one of the friends spells out the notion that his civil rights have been ignored by society's inability to provide him with a basic education until this point. At face value, the stories here—which also include teenagers from India, England, and Sierra Leone, where the stigmas of perceived "demonic possession" seem little different from other prejudices—are thoughtful and empathetic. Higashida's descriptions (narrated by Jordan O'Donegan), though, serve as the keystone here. Through his words, we're able to better comprehend and imagine the ways in which the mind of someone with autism might perceive the world—as specific details gradually forming a larger picture—and time—as memories of years ago seem to have happened only a few moments prior. Could we have gained this knowledge simply from reading Higashida's book? That's likely the case, but The Reason I Jump does put the author's accounts into an immediate and personal perspective, which is definitely worth something. Copyright © 2021 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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