The Reason I Jump, Free Virtual Screening Fri, 01/08/2021 - 5:00pm - Sun, 01/31/2021 - 10:00pm
Presented as part of
Dialogue on Disability and
Move to Include, this film examines the lives of five young people who live with autism spectrum disorder.
WXXI, Al Sigl Community of Agencies, and the Golisano Foundation are pleased to bring you this film,
The Reason I Jump, at The Virtual Little free of charge throughout January. Based on the best-selling book by Naoki Higashida,
The Reason I Jump is an immersive cinematic exploration of neurodiversity through the experiences of nonspeaking autistic people from around the world.
A scene from the documentary The Reason I Jump. First published in Japan in 2007, “The Reason I Jump” is a memoir written by Naoki Higashida when he was 13-years-old. A nonverbal person with autism, Higashida made use of an alphabet grid his mother developed that allowed him to communicate the thoughts he was never able to express verbally. His words provided an impressionistic, first-person account of living with autism, as the young author attempted to explain to a neurotypical audience what it’s like to see the world through his eyes.
Later translated into English in 2013 by author David Mitchell (“Cloud Atlas”) and his wife K. A. Yoshida, who themselves have a child on the autism spectrum, the book would go on to be translated into 30 different languages and become an international bestseller.