Film Short - “Autistic America”

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Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome when he was 5 years old, Jonathan Carlander has been involved in many autism-related events through the years, both as a participant and as a speaker. They’ve included film camps for autistic youth and conferences at Ventura College and CSU Northridge.

Now, he’s made a 13-minute movie.

His short film, “Autistic America,” has been submitted to several film festivals that promote autism awareness, including the Golden Door International Film Festival, set for Sept. 20-23 in Jersey City, New Jersey.

“I hope to share this deeply personal story to audiences on the big screen, as well as on their computer screens,” said Carlander, 27, of Camarillo, who will find out in a few weeks whether his film has been selected.

Set on Independence Day, the film opens with a scene inside a living room in Ventura, where we meet Tim, who has just moved to the neighborhood. The story then unfolds, following the lives of three individuals who are on the autism spectrum: Tim, an introverted artist who tries to attend a neighbor’s party despite his sensory sensitivities and social anxiety; Paula, who wants to ask her boyfriend to marry her and father her child; and Ian, who tries to reconcile with his estranged father who cannot look past his son’s differences.

Carlander said he wanted to make a movie that told several stories around a certain day or theme, like George Lucas’ “American Graffiti” or Richard Linklater’s “Slacker.”

“As far as I know, there hasn’t been an anthology movie made about autistic characters, so I decided to make that movie myself,” he said.

Originally, he envisioned a feature-length film, but decided to “take a crack” at making a short film due to budget and location restrictions.

He said that if his film does evolve into a feature, it will be set in various U.S. cities such as New York and Austin, so audiences can understand how many people there are in this country who are on the autism spectrum.

“The need to accept these beautiful people is more critical than ever,” Carlander said. “They’re here to stay, and we cannot shove them away. They have the right to be respected and treated with dignity.”

After graduating from Camarillo High School in 2008, Carlander spent three years studying film and television production at Oxnard College. He later attended Columbia College Hollywood Film School for three years, earning a bachelor’s degree in film editing in 2014. He said that shortly after that, he was hired to help edit two documentary films for 2929 Productions and Mann-made Pictures in Los Angeles.

Ultimately, Carlander wants people with autism to know they are not alone in their struggles and isolation.

“And I want people without autism to know what autistic people are really capable of and what they want in life, which is acceptance and love,” he said.