Skip to main content
OKAY! (The ASD Band Film) film image, director Mark Bone

OKAY! (The ASD Band Film)

This event has passed

“ASD Band is a group of musicians who are all on the autism spectrum: we’re all autistic and we’re all in a band,” explains Jackson D. Begley, who plays guitar and sings in the band, alongside singer Rawan Tuffaha, drummer Spenser Murray, pianist Ron Adea, and their musical director, Maury LaFoy. This heartfelt documentary chronicles the enthusiastic experience of the band as they prepare to record their first album of original songs and play their first live show. Director Mark Bone takes time to get to know the bandmates: from Jackson’s love of Elvis, Ron’s background in classical piano, Spenser’s punk rock sensibilities, and Rawan’s perfect pitch. The collaborative nature of their songwriting and performing shines through in their excitement, while also allowing them to open to the camera about their hopes and fears, what it means to be autistic and perceived by the world, and how they are (mis)understood by friends and family.

Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, 2nd Prize, Hot Docs 2022

 

 Q&A Oct 8

 

Media Partner

Stir Logo

Community Partner

       

Director
Cast

Rawan Tuffaha, Jackson D Begley, Spenser Murray, Ron Adea, Maury LaFoy

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2022

Language

English

Film Contact
Links
Content Warning

Coarse language

PG

Open to youth!

86 min
Art, Music & Photography Award Winners Documentary

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Until Branches Bend

Discovering a potentially invasive insect inside a peach, fruit packer Robin immediately reports it. When management refuses to take action, she goes public with her concerns and precipitates a widescale shutdown in her Okanagan town.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre VIFF Centre - Studio Theatre

Navalny

As enthralling as any thriller, Canadian Daniel Roher's Academy Award-winning documentary gives us the inside story as the outspoken Russian dissident pieces together the evidence proving that Russian security forces attempted to assassinate him.

VIFF Centre - Studio Theatre

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

A cadre of incensed environmental activists assemble in Texas and take dead aim at an oil pipeline. Direct in its discourse and skillful in its construction, Daniel Goldhaber's propulsive thriller is as provocative as it is exhilarating.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Return to Seoul

25 and reckless, Freddie hops a flight from France to South Korea, vaguely thinking to connect with the parents who put her up for adoption as a baby. She doesn't speak Korean, doesn't know anyone, doesn't even know the names of her birth parents.

VIFF Centre - Studio Theatre

In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis

Master documentarian Gianfranco Rosi (Fire At Sea; Notturno) assembles a mixed progress report on the current pontiff, drawing from archives' of Francis's travels (he's visited 53 countries in a decade), including last summer's trip to Canada.

VIFF Centre - Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

A Cedar Is Life

The cedar tree has always been central to First Nations cultural practice on the northwest coast. It is, you could say, foundational flora. A Cedar Is Life is an illuminating, passionate film which speaks to a defining aspect of this part of the world.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre VIFF Centre - Studio Theatre

Credits

Executive Producer

Andrew Simon, Tamara Sulliman, David Bodanis, Stephanie Pennington

Producer

Gregory Rosati

Screenwriter

Gregory Rosati, Andrew Simon

Cinematography

Chris Romeike

Editor

Eva Dubovoy

Original Music

Maury LaFoy

Director

Mark Bone headshot, OKAY! (The ASD Band Film) director

Mark Bone

Mark Bone is an award-winning documentary director based in Toronto, Canada. He has directed numerous documentaries, including 58 Hours: The Baby Jessica Story (2021), which chronicles the rescue of Jessica McClure; Rescate (2017), about the heroism of volunteer paramedics in the Dominican Republic; No Country is an Island (2020), a first-hand look at the tragic Easter Bombings in Sri Lanka; and Battleground (2021), which was awarded a Vimeo Staff Pick Premiere.