Autism at Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival this year is showing two films that feature characters identified as having Aspergers Syndrome.

Adam from director Max Mayer and starring Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne sounds romantic and is described on the film's site, "Though their particular challenges are extraordinary, Beth and Adam's tricky relationship elucidates something universal: truly reaching another person means bravely stretching into discomfiting territory and the shake-up can be liberating."

Mary and Max from director Adam Elliot is an animated feature about a friendship, and is desccribed, "This film that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, trust, copulating dogs, sexual and religious differences, agoraphobia, and more, and is rooted in a very personal relationship, is proof of why we go to the movies and a truly exceptional portrait of compassion and love."

Use of the word "suffering" in the Mary and Max description aside (don't worry, I've quite a few things planned to address that issue here), these two films give me hope that autism is indeed gaining more acceptance in the world. These films appear to be neither about how horrible it is to be on the spectrum, nor flashy spots about autistic "super crips." Instead, these appear to be films about human beings who happen to be autistic, with autism being just one facet of plot and character.

Of course until I actually see the films it's hard to make a strong statement about how well or poorly they handle the autistic characters. However, based on the descriptions on the Sundance site, I'm feeling very hopeful!