AUTISM IN LOVE – MLFF 2015

I continue to be impressed by the programming here at the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival, and AUTISM IN LOVE falls under the ‘impressive’ category.

This incredible documentary follows four bright adults of different ages and circumstances as they discover, long for, manage, or lose love in their lives. This film questions just what love truly means, and how important it is, for all of us.

Lindsay and Dave, who are both autistic, happened to meet at a convention for autism in 2005, and at the time of filming, had been together for 8 years and questioning the subject of marriage. Although the two are both diagnosed as autistic, they are very different in their behaviors and thinking patterns. Lindsay is a creative type, whereas Dave is a scientist. Still, the two manage to compliment each other, and have found a way for their love to work.

Stephen, from St. Paul, MN is highly intelligent, but his social skills are a bit farther removed than the rest of the subjects of the film. He had been married to a lovely woman named Guita for over twenty years, but at the time of the initial shooting, she was living somewhere else and fighting ovarian cancer. She later passed away. Stephen talks to the camera about his love for Guita, and was hopeful that she would get better, but later explained that once she had passed away, he stopped loving her. He had to stop loving her, because she was dead.

The person experiencing the hardest time in the film was Lenny, a twenty-something kid from Los Angeles, CA who has yet to come to terms with his autism. Throughout the film we see Lenny repeatedly tell the interviewer how he longed to just be a normal kid. Lenny wears his heart on his sleeve, and his struggle is rather difficult to watch. Not only is he uncomfortable with himself, but he is convinced that the only way that he will get a girlfriend is if he has money, a job, and a car. Towards the end of the film Lenny finally does get a job, but it doesn’t really help much on his quest for happiness and self-acceptance.

Director Matt Fuller does an incredible job of getting these amazing people to open up on camera, and I later found out that he actually projected his face onto a mirror in front of the lens so that everyone would know where to look. What he captured is a humane, heart filled tale of universal love and heartache. This film is a journey for the soul.

It was reported after the film that PBS saw the film at the Tribeca Film Festival, and has now bought the rights. AUTISM IN LOVE should be aired or screened widely (hopefully) sometime soon. If you get the chance to see this film, do it!

OVERALL RATING : 5 out of 5 stars

FOR MORE INFO: www.autisminlove.com