“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
Community Partner
Rawan Tuffaha, Jackson D Begley, Spenser Murray, Ron Adea, Maury LaFoy
Canada
2022
English
Coarse language
Open to youth!
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Flow
In this wordless and gorgeously atmospheric animated feature, a solitary black cat survives a tsunami and must confront his fear of water whilst sailing through a flooded world with a group of misfit animals. An enchanting adventure film for all ages. Rated: G
Obsessed with Light
Nearly a century after her death Loie Fuller is still inspiring artists like Taylor Swift, Shakira, Bill T Jones and William Kentridge. She became world famous as an innovative dancer, combining fabric, lighting effects and movement in revolutionary ways.
Food Bank Benefit Screening: Hundreds of Beavers
The funniest, and certainly the furriest movie you will see this year, Hundreds of Beavers channels the zany slapstick shtick of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Bugs Bunny through a videogame quest narrative to retell the eternal saga of Man v Nature. All proceeds from this screening go to the Vancouver Food Bank.
Babylon
Damien Chazelle's second Hollywood on Hollywood movie (after La La Land) follows Margot Robbie as a starlet on the make at the tail end of the silent film era in the late 1920s, and a couple of friends she makes along the way.
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) tells the story of South African photographer Ernest Cole, who captured some of the most vivid and compelling images of the apartheid regime in the 1960s but died in near obscurity in the USA just as Mandela was released.
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
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.