“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
The Graduate
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blur: To the End
Now in their late 50s, Britpopsters blur (of Song 2 fame) do a celebratory lap of Great Britain culminating in their first ever Wembley Stadium show in this appealing observational doc. A companion piece to the concert film Live at Wembley Stadium.
Midnight Cowboy
Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are street hustlers on different ends of the innocence / experience spectrum who establish something more than a business partnership in the seedy world of late 60s New York City in John Schlesinger's New Hollywood classic.
Sinners
This year's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.
The Headless Woman
The pictures tell the story -- and you better not blink -- when Veronica (the superb Maria Onetto) hits something on the road home. But what? She is too traumatized, or panic-stricken, to go back and look, and her fears are too terrible to acknowledge.
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.