“Nothing About Us Without Us”

The Stimming Pool features a cast of autistic actors and non-actors, including neurodivergent performance artist Dre Spisto (Edinburgh Fringe 2023). Members of the Neurocultures Collective also appear, behind the scenes. It was shot on Super 16mm by cinematographer Greg Oke (Aftersun). The film takes direct inspiration from Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s concept of social (sur)realism, a method of bringing observational documentary into contact with fantastical, constructed elements. The Stimming Pool’s recurring patterns and Easter-egg-like details, hidden in the background, directly references PLAYTIME by Jacques Tati. It’s baton-passing structure riffs on SLACKER by Richard Linklater. 

The project’s co-direction and apprenticeship structure offers opportunity, inclusion and visibility for neurodivergent creatives, who are often obliged to explain their identity to audiences rather than play a central part in how representations are formed. The film takes a progressive approach to film production, playing to the individual strengths and aspirations of Neurocultures Collective members, with every person contributing to the film’s authorship. This method of production seeks to create new vantage points into the complex ecologies of filmmaking to explore how currently inadequate models might evolve to empower neurodiverse artists, audiences, and communities.

Alongside the Neurocultures Collective, The Stimming Pool was also produced by a predominantly neurodiverse crew.