Why I’m jumping

USA/Storbritannia 2020
Reg: Jerry Rothwell
Med: David Mitchell, Jordan O´Donegan, Jim Fujiwara, Emma Budway, Amrit Khurana, Aarti Khurana, Donna Budway
Genre: Documentary
Premiere: 11. february

The first thing I think when I see this movie is that it was time! It’s time to tell the story of those of us who are a little differently screwed together. For it is only this that distinguishes “ordinary people” from people diagnosed with autism, that some of their pieces have a slightly different structure in this strange and extreme complex puzzle that makes up a human being.

We follow Naoki Higashida’s perspective on life. We get an insight into how a thirteen year old boy experiences and senses life in all its challenges. He is dumb, and has learned to write down his thoughts via an alphabet board. We get to know him through “his” narrator’s voice via the book, and we get to hear about what it is like for him to be human. To understand that it is raining, he must, for example, connect old memories to the sound and sight of rain, and then put two and two together. Such a process takes time, and it does not help that people around him constantly tell him that it is raining. It takes the time it takes, and patience is a virtue.

This is the case with most situations, and all autistic children understand things differently. We get to meet other children in the same situation, as well as their parents. Several of the parents have received revelations in understanding their children by putting their thought patterns in new light. It is about getting a better quality of life for both adults and children.

Documentary is well composed and beautifully put together. It is incredibly important for understanding a vulnerable group in society, which in everyday life is often misunderstood and mistreated. I think big and dare to say that by seeing Why I Jump , we will all gain increased self-awareness, higher tolerance towards fellow human beings, and greater understanding of the world we live in – no matter how we are screwed together. This is an important and moving film that absolutely everyone should see.

yunn Corset