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What is it like to be born into a world that seems like it wasn’t quite made for you – to feel, perhaps, as if you’re tuned to a slightly different frequency than everyone else? Produced for the UK’s Channel 4 in 1991, director Tim Webb’s award-winning short A Is for Autism immerses viewers in the minds and drawings of several autistic people as they discuss their interests, dislikes, sensory experiences and the challenges of being different. The collaborative project includes a free-flowing animation based on the sketches of several autistic children alongside the perspectives of autistic people of varying ages, including the US animal behaviouralist and autism rights advocate Temple Grandin. Using sound, music and live action alongside the charming animations to evoke the sensory experiences of its narrators, the film draws out the similarities in their lived experience, as well as the vast diversity among individual autistic people. Created before the major strides in autism awareness and research of the past few decades, Webb’s film was widely celebrated at the time of its release for its original aesthetic as well as for centring its autistic contributors.
Director: Tim Webb
Producer: Dick Arnall
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Family life
The stream-of-consciousness thoughts and memories that emerge while cooking a meal
5 minutes
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Family life
The precious family keepsakes that hold meaning for generations
10 minutes
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Neuroscience
This intricate map of a fruit fly brain could signal a revolution in neuroscience
2 minutes
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Information and communication
Coverage of the ‘balloon boy’ hoax forms a withering indictment of for-profit news
17 minutes
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Childhood and adolescence
Marmar is living through a devastating war – but she’d rather tell you about her new dress
8 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Wander through the English countryside with two teens trying to make sense of the world
10 minutes
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Art
A puppeteer makes sense of an overwhelming world by shrinking it down to size
5 minutes
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Personality
A ‘dumpster archeologist’ reconstructs strangers’ stories via what they’ve discarded
14 minutes
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Ageing and death
We’re not the only animals that appear to grieve. What are the implications?
6 minutes